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VOLUME I 



A NAUIIATIVK iW KVUNTS 



DANIKL VAN PELT 



THE (!KN^riIllV IlISTOIiV COMPANY 

111 K I FT 1 1 AVKNUK 

NKW YORK 






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THE WINTHROP PRESS 
32-34 LAFAYETTE PLACE 
NEW YORK 



PREFACE. 



N writing these pages the author has had in view the 
aim to please and satisfy, not antiquarians or spe- 
cialists in historic lore, but busy men in all trades, 
pursuits, and professions, who have an interest and 
pride in their State, and wish to have in their hands a story of 
its annals in readable form. Thus the facts and events most 
worth knowing have been selected, and grouped in such a way 
as best to hold the attention and impress the memory. 

We have attempted to equalize the treatment of every part 
of the State, and not to make prominent any one portion at the 
expense of the others. Still some may complain that too much 
" history " has been made of the territory " below the Harlem 
Kiver." It will have to be conceded, however, by these critics, 
that, as population by civilized men first occurred in this vicinity, 
naturally earlier times would find events for record to be hap- 
pening mainly there. Before the wilderness of middle, northern, 
and western New York was peopled by the whites, not much can 
be discovered that will '' point a moral or adorn a tale." 

Just before we went to press, appeared Prof. John Fiske's 
two volumes on " The Dutch and Quaker Colonies." We were 
startled to read in his pages a circumstantial account of a 
French fort, or village, or city, called Norumbega, on the tongue 
of land jutting out into the now non-existent Collect Pond, on 
^ranhattan Island. It seemed at first as if we would have to 
rewrite one of our chapters. Rut as we read this passage with 
greater care, we came to the conclusion that the argumentation 



IV PREFACE. 

was more ingenious and fascinating' (as are all Professor Fiske's 
writings) than convincinji'. lie builds his argument with too 
much confidence on the maps of ancient explorers. The bewilder- 
ing and amazing inaccuracies of these maps, even under Profes- 
sor Fiske's handling, with a little touch of special pleading in it, 
do not furnish a sufficient argument for setting aside what seems 
to be a hard fact — that Henry Hudson was the first European 
explorer to sail up the river named after him, and to set his eves 
on the beautiful island called Mannahatta by the Indians, and 
Manhattan by the Dutch and English. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Beginnings of Empire (to 1625) 1 

The Title " Empire State," How Acquired ? — Supremacy the Promise of 
Geologic Times — New York the Seat of P^mpire under Barbaric Indian 
Kule — The League of the Iroquois, or Five Nations — Status of Civilization 
among the American Aborigines — Tribes of Indians in New York — 
Champlain, the French Explorer, Enters Its Territory — Hudson and the 
" Half-Moon " — The News in Holland — Christiaensen and Block — The New 
Netherland Company — Treaty of Tawasentha; Its Significance — The Dutch 
West India Company Sends the Walloon Families — Fort Orange, now Albany. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Four Dutch Directors (1626-1C64) 29 

Regular Colonial Government Established — Director-General Peter 
Minuit — Purchase of Manhattan Island — Life in the Settlement — The 
Patroonsliips — Van Rensselaer's Tract near Fort Orange — -Director Walter 
Van Twiller — Encroachments of the English — Van Twiller Removed — 
Director William Kieft — Charter of 1640 — Colonists in Westchester County, 
Long Island, and Fort Orange — Indian Wars — Director Peter Stuyvesant — 
New Amsterdam Becomes a City — Schenectady and Kingston (Rondout) 
Founded — The English Townships on Long Island — Surrender of New 
Netherland — Review of the Colonial Policy of the West India Company. 

CHAPTER in. 

The Change to British Dominion (1GG4-1G82) 62 

Previous Career of (lovernor Nicolls — Province Named New York — War 
between England and Holland — The " Duke's Laws " — Troubles on Long 
Island — Changes at New York — Boundary Questions — The French in the 
Mohawk Country — Nicolls Asks to Be Relieved; His Death in Solebay 
Battle — Francis Lovelace, Governor — Small Progress at New York — A 
Postal Route — Recapture of New York by the Dutch — Governor Anthony 
Colve — Retransfer of New York to England — Edmund Andros, Governor — 
Improvements at New York — Conference with Indians at Utica — Robert 
Livingston and the Schuyler Family — Troubles about New Jersey — Andros 
Recalled. 



vi , TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE. 

The Granting of a Popular Assembly (1683-1001) \y^ 

Governor Thomas Dongan — Instructed to Grant a Popular Assembly — It 
Meets and Passes the "Charter of Liberties "—Courts and Naturalization— 
New York Divided into Counties — New York City Charter — Condition of 
New York at this Time — Albany Ineorporated as a City — Villages near 
the Esopus — Duke of York Becomes James II. — The Assembly Abolished — 
Dongan and Indian Affairs — His Relations with the French — Recalled and 
Late*!- Career — The " Dominion " of New England, New York, and New 
Jersey — Sir Edmond Andros, (iovernor-General — Tiie English Revolution of 
1688— Effect in New York — The Leisler Troubles — Schenectady Massacre — 
First Colonial Congress — Arrival of Governor Sloughter — Trial and Execu- 
tion of Leisler— The Assembly Called Again— Sudden Death of Governor 
Sloughter. 

CHAPTER V. 

The Konndino- Out of the First Century (1G92-1708) 131 

Governor Benjamin Fletcher — Secret and Open Instructions — Efforts to 
{Establish a State Church — Introduction of Printing — Prompt Aid to 
Northern Settlements — Fletcher Recalled — The Earl of Bellomont Succeeds 

Him His View of the Leisler Episode — Leisler and Milborne Rehabilitated — 

Piracy's Subtle Temptations — Captain Kidd — Land Grants L"p the State — 
P^lectioneering for Assemblies — Death of Bellomont — Nanfan's ad interim 
Term— Lord Cornbury Sent to Govern New York — His Conduct at Jamaica, 
L. I. — Peter Schuyler, or Quider, the Friend of the Indians — Prolestant 
Missions among the Mohawks — The " French Scare " at New York — Corn- 
bury's Shameless Thefts — Action of the Assembly Thereupon — Cornbury's 
Recall — The Rounding Out of the First Century. 

CHAI'TER VI. 

Early Intimations of Independence (1709-1728) 1(12 

Importance of Events — Lord John Lovelace Appointed Governor — A Dis- 
agreeable Voyage — Assembly and Governor Meet — How the "Contest" 
Began — Death of Lord Lovelace — Governor Hunter's Remarkable Career — 
The Coming of the Palatines — Settlements Along the Hudson — Palatines 
on the Mohawk River — The Canadian Campaigns — Schuyler Takes Five 
Sachems to England— The Assembly under Hunter — William Burnet, 
(Governor- — His Cultured Tastes — Marriage in New York — Commerce and 
Revenue of the Day — The "French Trade" Stopped — The Six Nations — 
Fort Oswego Erected — The Long Assembly — ^Opposition to Burnet — Re- 
moved to Massachusetts — Death. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Press in Conflict with the Covernment (1728-1743) 193 

Under the Four Georges — James Montgomerie, Governor — Commerce and 
Life at the Port of New York — The Population of the Province in 1731 — 
Death of Montgomerie — Rip Van Dam, Acting (iovernor — William Cosby, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vll 

Governor — His Greed for Money — A Suit-at-law and the Men Engaged in 
It — Cosby's Arbitrary Acts — The Gazette and Journal Newspapers — Attacks 
on the Governor in the Latter — The Publisher Arrested for Libel — The 
Zenger Trial — -Triumph for the Freedom of the Press — ^Cosby and tlie 
Assembly — Cosby's Death — George Clarke, Lieutenant-Governor — Advances 
Made by the Assembly — Various Incidents— Clarke Returns to England. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE. 

The Assembly Keeps Up the Contest (1743-1755) 223 

Governor George Clinton a Sailor — Relations with James De Lancey — 
Dr. Cadwallader Golden — Admiral Warren and the Capture of Louisbourg — 
Indians During the War — Destruction of Saratoga — Aggressions of the 
French — Missionaries among the Indians of New York — William Johnson, 
Superintendent of Indian Affairs — The Assembly and Its Contentions with 
Governor Clinton — Tragic Effect of Its Attitude on (lovernor Sir Danvers 
Osborn — The Albany Congress and Its Plan of Union — The Province at the 
Middle of the Eighteenth Century— New York City — The Interior Counties — 
Albany and Its Ways of Living — Schenectady and the Settlements Westward. 



CHAPTER IX. 

War against Canada and Kevolt at Home (1755-1775) 254 

De Lancey Acts as Governor — Sir Charles Hardy Succeeds Osborn — 
Columbia (King's) College — De Lancey's Death — Colden Becomes Lieutenant- 
Governor — The French and Indian War — Braddock's Defeat — Nova Scotians 
in New York — Battle of Lake (xeorge — Campaigns iu Western New York — 
Fort William Henry and Attempts against Crown Point — End of the War 
and New York's Sufferings — A Succession of (iovernors — The Stamp Act 
Troubles — Verging toward Revolution — William Tryon, Last Colonial 
Governor — The Assembly in the Final Contest — Tryon's Last Acts and 
Dwindling Authority. 



CHAPTER X. 

New York the Battleground of the Revolution (1775-1783) . . 28() 

The War Transferred from New England to New York — Tieonderoga 
and Crown Point — The Invasion of Canada — General Richard Montgomery — 
New York City the Next Point of Attack — Battle of Long Island — Man- 
hattan Island in the Hands of the Enemy — The Burgoyne Campaign — St. 
Leger on the Mohawk — Oriskany — Clinton on the Hudson — Kingston 
Burned — Battles of Saratoga and Burgoyne's Surrender — Cherry Valley and 
Retaliatory Campaigns — Colonel Marinus Willett — The Treason of Arnold — 
Importance of West Point — Stony Point Captured and Retaken — Andr^ 
Meets Arnold at Haverstraw — Andre's Arrest at Tarrytown — Execution at 
Tappan — Surrender of Cornwallis — The Army at Newburg — Evacuation of 
New York City. 



Vm TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE. 

The State and the Union (1775-1788) 340 

The Civil llistoiy of the State Goes On amid War — Provincial Con- 
gress — A Constitntiou Needed for the State — Conventions at Kingston — 
Governor George Clinton — A Crovernnient Needed for the Conntry — Weak- 
ness and Perils of the Confederation — Alexander Hamilton — The Constitntional 
Convention at Philadelphia, 1787 — New York Yields Land for Pnblic 
Domain — The Federalist — Convention to Ratify the Federal Constitution at 
Ponghkeepsie — New York Adopts It as P^leventh State, July 26, 1788 — 
Celebrations at New York, on Long Island, at Albany. 

CHAPTER XII. 

A ClmngQ of Capitals (1789-1800) 363 

New York Capital of the United States — Inauguration of Washington — 
Hamilton in the Cabinet — Washington and Congress Leave New York — 
Governor Clinton Still in Power — Provisions for Education — An Early 
" Counting Out " — John Jay Elected (Governor — Abolition of Slavery in 
New York — Albany Becomes Capital of the State — Significance of the 
Change — General Condition of the State; New York City — Staten Island 
and Long Island — Towns along the Hudson — The City of Hudson — The 
Country North and West of Albany — Union College at Schenectady — The 
Middle West and the Far West — Massachusetts Sells New York Lands — 
The " Holland Purchase," and Buffalo in 1798— The City of Albany— The 
End of the Second Century. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Political Ferments Following Independence (1801-180(1) . . . 387 

Political Agitations Inseparable from Free Government — Party Violence 
Makes Patriots Antagonists — Presidential Deadlock of 1801 — Aaron Burr 
vs. Thomas Jefferson — Thirty-seven Ballots in Congress — Governor Jay Re- 
tires from Public Life — -George Clinton Again Governor in 1801 — Tlie 
Council of Appointment— Spoils System Inaugurated in New York — Con- 
stitutional Convention of 1801 — Morgan i^ewis, Governor — Burr Challenges 
Hamilton to a Duel — Burr's Subsequent Career — Establishment of the Mili- 
tary Academy at West Point. 

Supi^lement to Chapter V 408 



ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL. 



Headquarters of General Washington at Tappan. . .Frontispiece 

Henry Hudson. Face Page IG 

Peter Stu^vesant 

Sir Edmund Andros 

Philip Schuyler 

Ivichard Montgomery 

Marinus Willett 

Alexander Hamilton 

Morgan Lewis 

Robert Livingston 

Stephen Van Rensselaer 

George Clinton 

De Witt Clinton 

Henry White 

John Jay 

William Walton 

John Cruger 

James Kent 

Rufus King : 

Daniel D. Tompkins 

Washiniiton Irviuii" 



ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT. 



ki " 


32 


ii u 


48 


u u 


66 


u u 


86 


U ii 


104 


ii ii 


120 


ii ii 


140 


ii ii 


156 


ii ii 


176 


ii ii 


196 


ii ii 


216 


ii ii 


234 


ii ii 


254 


ii ii 


278 


ii ii 


298 


ii ii 


318 


ii ii 


340 


ii ii 


360 


ii ii 


376 




PAGE. 

3 



The " Half-Moon " 

Samuel D. Champlain 7 

Manhattan Island in 1609 11 

First View of New Amsterdam 15 

West India Company House 19 

The Figurative :\rap 23 

Seal of New Netherland 27 

Schuvler Arms 28 



X LiaX OF ILLUSTKATIONS. 

PAGE 

The Ship " New Netherlcand " 31 

The First Warehouse 35 

Purchase of ^[anhattan Island 39 

David Pietersen De Vries 43 

The Church at Flatlands 47 

Earliest Map of New York (Mt.y 51 

The Governor's House and the Church, 1(542. 55 

Cit}' Tavern, New Amsterdam 59 

De Peyster Arms 61 

The Damen House 04 

Canal on Broad Street, New York City 68 

Seal of New Amsterdam 72 

Adriaen Y-du der Donck's Map 76 

New Amsterdam in 1656 80 

The Water Gate 84 

The West India Company's House 8S 

Van Eensselaer Arms 92 

Stuyvesant Tearin^j, NicoUs's Letter 94 

Stuy vesant's Bouwery House 98 

New Y^ork in 1664 102 

The De Sille House 106 

The Kip House 110 

Stuy vesant's Grave 114 

New York in 1673 118 

Cornelius Evertsen , 122 

The Andros Double Seal 126 

Robert Livingston 130 

Clinton Arms 133 

Cornelius Steenwyck's House 135 

Cornelius Steenwyck 130 

The Strand, now Whitehall Street, New York 143 

Dr. Gerardus Beekman 147 

The City Hall and Dock, New York (My 151 

Thomas Dongan 155 

Don'jnn Charter Seal 159 



LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. XI 

PAGE. 

r'^erry between New York and Brooklyn 160 

Livinostou Arms 1 Gl 

The Donj^au House 1G4 

Seal of Dutchess County 168 

Seal of New York, 1668 171 

Peter Schuyler 175 

The Albany Seal, 16S6 179 

The Philipse Manor House 183 

Facsimile Leisler Letter 187 

Jacob Leisler's Kesidence 190 

Leisler's Autograph and Seal. 192 

Lord Bellomont 195 

Site of the Mills Building 199 

Jeremias Xnn Rensselaer 203 

View of New York City 207 

Jacob Leisler's Tomb 211 

City Hall, New York City, 1700 215 

Lewis Morris 219 

De Lancey Arras 222 

Rip ^^an Dam 224 

riiili]) Livingston 228 

Richard Lovelace 232 

William Burnet 236 

William Smith 240 

Early Slave Market, New York City 244 

Cadwallader Colden 248 

Viscount Cornbury 252 

Gallatin Arms 253 

Augustus Jay 257 

King of the Maquas 261 

Emperor of the Six Nations 265 

King of the River Nations. . , 269 

Samuel Vetch 273 

Gilbert Burnet 277 

View of New York City, in 1732 280 



Xll LIST OF ILLUSTIIATIOXS. 

TAGE. 

P()])l)le\s Plan of New York {'ity and Environs, 1733 283 

D()n<;an Anns 285 

Andrew Hamilton 289" 

View of New York City, 1T4(; 293 

The Beverly Kobinson House 297 

The Van Cortlandt Mansion 301 

The Sir Danvers Osborn Letter 305 

Sir Danvers Osborn 309 

Columbia College, 1758 313 

Oswego, in 17G0 317 

Red Jacket 321 

Joseph Brant 325 

Sir Henry Clinton 329 

The Walton House. 333 

Robert INIonckton 337 

Beekman Arms , 339 

Sir Charles Hardy 343 

William Pitt 347 

Burns's Coffee House 351 

Broad Street and City Hall, New York City 358 

Philipse Arms 361 

George Washington 362 

The Nathan Hale Letter 365 

Lord Dunmore 367 

Exploit of Marinus Willett 371 

Seal of New York State, 1777 375 

News of Lexington 379 

Marinus Willett's Residence 383 

Cardiner Arms. 386 

Israel Putnam 388 

Alexander McDougall 392 

Benedict Arnold 396 

King George III 400 

Old Blue Bell Tavern 404 

Hicks Arms 407 




CHAPTER I. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE. 

iMONG the members of the Union constituting the Ee- 

public of the United States of America, the title of 

Empire State has long been accorded to New York. 

Perhaps it can be traced to no less a source than the 

hand of Washington himself, Avheu, acknowledging the receipt 

of tlie Freedom of New York City, in December, 1784, he alluded 

to our State as " at present the seat of the Empire." 

No longer the political center as in the days of the Continental 
Congress and the beginning of Federal Government, she has 
attained Empire in another sense, AA^hich the accidents and in- 
trigues of politics can neA^er take aAA^ay from her. Yet though 
she leads the Union to-day in population, in Avealth, in commerce, 
perhai^s, also, in manufactures and industries of many sorts, 
her people can not claiin all the credit of this circumstance for 
themselves. It is due, also, largely to circumstances over which 
they had no control. Tliey simply found a matchless combina- 
tion of natural features of immense benefit to them, if disposed 
to improve them diligently. 

The situation of her metropolis at the mouth of the Hudson 
was not more favorable to its becoming the Queen of American 
Commerce than the entire configuration of the interior of the 
State Avas calculated to give later populations a great advantage 
in the race for commercial and industrial supremacy upon which 
the Thirteen Colonies started Avhen they had become independent 
States, and liad begun to bid for the business of the Avorld as 



Z THE EMl'lUE STATE IX THREE CENTL'KIES. 

one of the family of nations. Her many great rivers, flowing in 
every direction, attended by convenient valleys, and making 
passageways throngli mountain ranges, otherwise forbidding 
or insurmountable, have always made New York the natural, 
inviting, inevitable highway of traftic between the North and the 
South, between the farther West and the seabordering East, 
at every stage in the evolution of trade, from the rudest forms 
of it in primitive days to the highly complicated character and 
vast volume it has assumed in our day of steam and electricity. 

It has become abundantly manifest by the event that Empire 
in the sense of supremacy over her sister States, in many partic- 
ulars attaches to New York. It is interesting, therefore, to note 
also the curious promise of precedence that may be read in the 
records of periods far antedating human history. In the dim 
regions of a geologic past, incalculably distant, we behold the 
territory of New York rising to the surface of the almost uni- 
versal waters, to become " land " as distinguished from " sea," 
before that of any other portion of the Union. This constitutes 
the rocks of Noav York, as some one has aptly said, '" the Old 
Testament of geology," at least on this side of the Atlantic. 

When Azoic Time, with its lifeless, or perhaps only compara- 
tivel}' lifeless, rocks had i^assed away, and Paleozoic Time began 
to write its records of ancient and vanished forms of life in 
layers of stone, the most primitive forms of all made up the 
Silurian Age, or Age of Mollusks, and the Devonian Age, or 
Age of Fishes. Beginning at a distance in time whose figures 
would make us dizzy, the lowest (or earliest) American division 
of the Silurian Age is called the " Potsdam Period," because 
the sandstone rocks found at Potsdam, in St. Lawrence County, 
are traced to that early date in the earth's history. So other 
divisions in primordial age are the Trenton Period, named so 
after the rocks about Trenton Falls, north of Utica; the Hudson 
Period, unmistakably derived from a New York locality; as is 
also the Niagara Period, whose rocks have been revealed to the 
eve bv the erosions of the mai>nificent cataract. 



TtrE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



The rocks of the next period, the Saliua, are those of the salt- 
bearing beds of Central New York, near Syracuse; while the 
latest division of this long ago age, the Lower Helderberg Period, 
reveals its rocks in the Helderberg Mountains, not far south of 
Albany. As we go up the scale of time through the next later or 
Devonian Age, we come across the names of Oriskany, famous 
in Revolutionary annals, and of the " Schoharie grit " in the 
Corniferous Period; Hamilton, Chemung, and Catskill Periods 
again remind us of well known localities within the borders of 
the Empire State, where rocks tell the story of the building up 
of the continent. 

And what is the story these names tell? What is the mean- 
ing of this nomenclature 
in geology? As we read , >. 

these names Ave seem to "^ iff^'it / 1 ^ 

- ,J— . LJ mix 
see the huge continent 

lying beneath the circum- 

incumbent ocean, lifting 

its Titanic shoulder above 

the watery surface. A lit- 
tle farther northward, 

where now we call the 

country Canada, even 

Azoic time had not been able to suppress the rising land. The 
nucleus of Nortli America must be traced here. But when Life 
Time first succeeded Lifeless Time, a point of the Republic near 
the St. Lawrence came also to the surface near Potsdam. 

The good work begun extended southward toward Utica, then 
westward to the upper Hudson; next as a pioneer toward the 
western horizon arose a bit of New York along the Niagara, 
followed ux) by the intervening territory around in the neigh- 
borhood of the salty lake near S^^racuse, and with an excursion 
toward the high ground below Albany at the end of the Silurian 
Age. The Devonian Age saw still more complete resurrections 
from the sea for New York State, until the Catskill Mountains 




HALF-MOON. 



4: THE EMPIRE STATE IN THUEE CENTURIES. 

had polcetl their lofty promontories above the water, and at the 
cdose of the Age of Fishes the i)ortion of the State above the 
Highhinds of the llndsoii had prettv nearl^^ emerged as i)er- 
manent hind. The bui'sting of tlie llighhmds barrier, and the 
How of the Hudson to the ocean as now, came later. "The 
raising of New York State out of water, at the close of the Devo- 
nian," remarks Professor Dana, '' suggests that from that time 
the Hudson Yallej was a streain of fresh ^^'ater." 

The valle}^ itself, and its continuation north as the Champlain 
Valley, date from the close of the lower Silurian. One more age 
intervened before we pass from the Paleozoic or Old-life Time, 
to the INIesozoic or INIiddle-life Time, and during this the Pali- 
sades along the lower Hudson were shot up as molten fire-rocks 
through the la3'ers of deposited or sand-rocks. Then when the 
Cenozoic or New-life Time had finally come, and animals, some- 
what more like such as we know them now, and men, had come 
upon the scene, in the earliest or Glacial Epoch of this Time, it is 
sui)posed the action of the moving glaciers opened a way for the 
great fresh-water lake of the Hudson and Champlain valleys 
through the Highlands, changing the lake into a narrower, flow- 
ing river, holding a majestic course past the Palisades to the 
southwai'd sea. 

Now, when was all this? Shall we compute the years and cen- 
turies? What will be the good of it. We shall neither be able 
to comprehend nor to remember. Take the quite recent Glacial 
Epoch when our noble Hudson became the delight which it 
now is to admiring tourists. Astronomical experts, putting their 
heads together with masters of geology, tell us that " the Glacial 
Epocli was coincident with the last period of high eccentricity of 
the earth's orbit." Noav astronomy has the data for measuring 
time, and it says that this period, when the earth's orbit was most 
eccentric, or least like a perfect circle, began 240,000 jeaiH ago, 
and ended 80,000 years ago. Start back, then, from this latest 
scene in the transformation of New York's most prominent geo- 
graphical feature, at least 80,000 years ago, and imagine, if you 



THE EMl'IRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 5 

can, how far back it must be to the Potsdam Period of the Silu- 
rian Age, in Paleozoic Time, when NeAV York, first of all the 
States of the Republic, appeared above the surface of the ocean 
and began its career as a part of the North American Continent. 
We need not calculate the precise date in geologic history when 
other portions of the Union came to the top, to be sure that the 
Empire State had precedence in this respect also by a con- 
siderable figure. 

Another promise, or prophecy, of later conditions for New 
York, is to be found in the history of earliest human occupation 
of New York territory. In a past much less remote than the one 
we have been trying to calculate, but still much antedating dis- 
covery and settlement by civilized men, man in the savage or 
barbarous stage had already made the soil of New York the 
seat of Empire in a most remarkable and undeniable manner. 
Eor it was here that was formed and developed the " League 
of the Iroquois," or the confederacy of the " Five Nations." 

" The immediate dominion of the Iroquois," says Bancroft, 
" stretched from the borders of Vermont to western New York ; 
from the lakes to the headwaters of the Ohio, the Susquehanna, 
and the Delaware. . . . Their political importance was in- 
creased by their conquests. Not only did they claim some su- 
premacy in uftrthern New England as far as the Kennebec, and 
to the south as far as New Haven — the peninsula of Upper 
Canada was their hunting-field by right of war; they had ex- 
terminated or reduced the Erics, dwelling to the south of Lake 
Erie; . . . tliey had triumphantly invaded the tribes of the 
west as far as Illinois; their warriors had reached the soil of 
Kentucky and western Virginia." Surely a dominion so vast 
is a phenomenon worthy of study, especially wdien the seat of 
this Empire, as of a later one alluded to in Washington's letter, 
was clearly within the borders of the State of New York, where 
were the dwelling places, the villages, and council-fires of the 
Five Nations (afterward Six) who achieved so extended a su- 
premacy over their fellow-natives. 



6 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Of the six great groups or families of Indians, tribes represent- 
ing the Algonqnins and the Iroquois occupied the territory of the 
State of New York, as well as Canada, to the north of it. The 
Iroquois were originall}- only one nation, and but few in number 
at that. They lived near Montreal, on the north bank of the St. 
Lawrence Eiver, and they were in subjection to the tribe of the 
Adirondacs, a branch of the Algonquin family. They learned 
the art of husbandry, rude as it Avas in those days, from their 
masters. But as instruction of so useful a nature was offset 
by cruelty and oppression, the Iroquois finally rose in rebellion 
to the rule of the Adirondacs, seeking to throw it off. Failing 
in this, for in strange contrast with their later irresistible 
prowess, they were but a feeble folk then, they determined to 
escape their troubles by emigration. Thus they put their belong- 
ings in canoes, worked their way uj) the St. Lawrence Kiver 
till the shores widened into the blue lake of Ontario. They 
risked the perils of the deep, crossed the lake, and paddled their 
way up the Oswego Iviver into the interior of our x)resent State. 

They now divided themselves into separate bands. One band 
went eastward and established its village at Ganegahaga, or 
Utica, becoming known later as the tribe of the Mohawks, often 
a S3nion3au in later days not only for the whole of the Five Na- 
tions, but for all that was savage and cruel among Indians. The 
tribes afterward distinguished as the Oneidas and the Onon- 
dagas remained one band for some years; then they broke up 
into two, one settling at Ganoalohale, east of Oneida Lake, 
the other in the Onondaga Valley. The later Cayugas and 
Senecas also were one band at first, then separated and devel- 
oped each into an independent tribe, one near Cajaiga Lake, the 
other on the Seneca Kiver. At first the five tribes thus gradually 
formed out of the single Iroquois nation, remained divided. Not 
only was there no league as yet, in spite of this common family 
origin, but they were even hostile toward each other, and more 
than once entered upon the warpath with its attendant horrors 
of dei)redation and torture. 



THE EMl'lRE STATE IN THKEE CENTUUIES. 



But the pressure of eoniuiou euemies of the Algonquin race 
reminded them of the claims of brotherhood, and taught them 
tlie advantages of union. It is uncertain wlien tlie League of the 
Five Nations was first formed. Lewis Morgan puts it as early as 
between 1400 and 1450, while Tarkman gives as its date about 
a century before the Dutch came into contact with the Con- 
federacy, or between 1510 and 1514. There did not fail to enter 
legendai'v or mythical elements into the account of its origin, 
as told by the Indians themselves. They attributed the scheme 
that had such tremendous and such lasting consequences to one 
Hayo-wentha, in whom we 
may, without much difficulty, 
recognize the more familiar 
figure of Hiawatha, immortal- 
ized by our Longfellow. At any 
rate, the league was formed, 
and for the purpose representa- 
tives of the five tribes met in 
council at the seat of the Onon- 
dagas, near Syracuse, the cen- 
tral tribe. 

It is well to stop right here 
and get a good view of the iDeo- 
ple we are dealing with. What 

stage did they occui)y in the evolution of civilization? A word 
as to this is not only interesting in itself, as placing in the 
right light before us the nations of men who dwelt in America 
before ever it became the adopted " habitat " of imported races 
from Europe; but it will serve a useful j)urpose in making some- 
what more credible tlie formation of this remarkable confedera- 
tion among men whom we should hardl}^ have thought capable 
of it. It so happens that the most careful and jDainstaking histo- 
rians of " Tlie League of the Iroquois," has also given in a later 
book " Ancient Society," what is considered as the most scien- 
tific analysis of the progress of civilization. 




SAMUEL DE CflAMPLAIN. 



8 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Mr. Lewis H. Morgan divides the history of civilization into 
the three generally accepted stages of savagery, barbarism, and 
civilization proper. The stage of savagery he divides again into 
three steps or periods : the lower, when men subsist on nuts and 
fruits, requiring no skill or labor to obtain; the middle, when 
men have learned to catch fish, and the use of fire to cook them; 
the higher, when the bow and arrow have been invented, and 
men extend their range of provisions and their possibility of 
sustaining life for larger numbers by giving themselves to the 
muscular and mental exertions of the chase. All of the Indians 
on the American Continent had reached this higher or last step 
in the stage of savagery. It is said that some tribes in Austral- 
asia are as far back in this evolution as the middle or even lower 
periods, having no knowledge of the bow and arrow. 

The next stage, or barbarism, may be characterized in a gen- 
eral way, as marked by the knowledge of the art of pottery. Its 
lower or first i^eriod reveals the practice of a rude agriculture, 
the feeblest coaxing of the soil to yield its products, without 
as yet any domestication of animals. The middle or second 
period of barbarism sees animals domesticated in Europe, but 
not yet in America; the people here being entitled to be classed 
as of this stage or period, because of the use of adobe brick and 
stone for building, and the cultivation of the soil by irrigation; 
also the use of copjjer is now perceived. The higher or third 
period under this head is distinguished by the fact that men have 
learned to smelt iron ore, and to use the metal resulting there- 
from for tools and weapons. Civilization proper emerges from 
barbarism with the use of the alphabet. In the Old World the 
Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Hebrews occupy this position. 

It is not thought scientific to consider any of the peoples in 
America as thus far advanced, in spite of the remarkable devel- 
opment appearing like civilization among the Mexicans and 
Peruvians, even though in Mexico the picture writing was very 
closely on the track of a real alphabet. These Americans had 
not even attained the '' iron " stage, to which must be assign^ 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 9 

the German tribes of ancient Europe. Only three of the ijeriods 
of civilization thus carefully differentiated may be found repre- 
sented among the Indians in this hemisphere. The higher sav- 
agery to which most of the wandering tribes belonged, the lower 
barbarism, where we may place our Mohawks and their con- 
federates; and the middle barbarism, no higher than which may 
we classify the jieople of Mexico and Peru. 

We have, then, precisely located our friends of the Iroquois 
League in the evolution of civilized existence. They were not 
savages, scientificallj^ speaking; they were barbarians of the 
middle period, using pottery, practicing agriculture, but without 
domestic animals of use in that art. But as they were also 
without an alphabet, and thus Avith no language but such as 
makes its fleeting impression ui3on the ear, without the power 
of abstraction or generalization, and thus occasioning no exer- 
cise of the thinking faculties along those lines, it seems almost 
beyond belief that they Avere capable of forming and continuing 
for centuries a league so nicely articulated as we shall now 
describe it, following Mr. Morgan's account in " Ancient So- 
ciety," pj). 128, 129. It is best to give it in articles, as if we were 
presenting our OAvn Constitution : 

I. There was a union of the Five Tribes, under one govern- 
ment, on the basis of entire equality, each tribe being independ- 
ent in its own local government. II. The government of the 
whole League was in the hands of a general council of sachems, 
limited in its numbers, of equal rank and authority among them- 
selves, supreme in all matters relating to the confederacy^ III. 
There were fifty sachemshii^s among the tribes, to which men 
were elected each in his own tribe, but invested with office by 
the General Council. IV. The sachems of the confederacy were 
also sachems in their ow^n tribes, and the chiefs of any tribe 
constituted a council for each supreme for such tribe. 
V. Unanimity was necessary for action in all matters in the 
General Council of the confederacy. VI. In the General Council 
the vote went by tribes; the representatives of each voted 



10 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

as a unit. VII. The coiuK-il of any tribe could convene the 
Genera] Council, but the latter could not convene itself. VIII. 
At the General Council any of the people were privileged td 
speak and harani'ue; but the decision on any question was re- 
served to itself. IX. The confederacy had no permanent chief, 
executive magistrate, or ofticial head whatever; but X, in case 
of war, two general militar}^ commanders were given chief 
direction, with equal power and authority. 

Thus at Onondaga, at the center of our State, in the fifteenth 
or sixteenth century — while Europe had just been burning its 
Huss at the stake, or just before Luther had nailed his thesis 
to the church door — came together these five primitive barbaric 
nations, the children of the forest, to establish this remarkable 
form of government, which, in its provisions and details, was 
not very unlike the confederacy of the United Netherland 
Provinces, with its States-General, or that of the thirteen United 
States of America under the Continental Congress. The League 
had two names for its combined existence. The one smacked 
of the unlimited self-esteem which is apt to possess the untutored 
breast of the " wild man." They felt that they were, and did 
not hesitate to say so, the " Ongwehonwe '' — " the men surpass- 
ing all others." 

The other name was descriptive or figurative, rather than 
boastful, " Hodenosaunee," or " the peoi^le of the long house.'' 
This was reall}^ a picturesque and apt appellation. It had refer- 
ence to the hut or cabin of birch bark, which was the abode 
usually of five or six different families, bestowed in as many 
sections of it under one long roof, familiar to those who have 
done any reading in Indian lore. So was this confederacy like 
one long house stretching from the vicinity of the Hudson River 
to near Niagara, through the very heart and center of New York 
State. What we now knoAV as Schenectady was truly named 
thus, " the place outside the door of the Long House," eastward, 
but was at Albany, or the shores of the Hudson, before the ar- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



11 



rival of the whito men caused " the place *' to retire to the city 
thus designated to-day. 

The first family of the Long' House, as we trace its dwellers 
in a westerly direction, w^ere the Mohawks, " the people pos- 
sessors of the tlint"; next came the Oneidas, "the granite peo- 
ple"; these were followed by the Onondagas, "the people on 




MANHATTAN ISLAND IN 1609 



the hills " ; next after them were the Cayugas, " the people at 
the mucky land"; lastly, facing the western horizon, were the 
Senecas, " the great hill people." As we shall see later, the Five 
Nations became the Six Nations in 1715, when the related Tus- 
caroras ("the shirt-wearing people") were driven from their 
hunting fields in the South, and added one member to the con- 



12 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

federacy, their name iiidieatiug that contact with the colonists 
from abroad had had a modifying effect upon their apparel. 

The League of the Five Nations having been formed, as in- 
dicated, they went forth in the strength of their union and con- 
quered their enemies near and far. They almost justified the 
claim of the boastful title they gave themselves, surpassing all 
the men they came in contact with in prowess and intelligence. 
Their conquering arms spread over the vast territory described 
by Bancroft, as we saw above. When civilized men began to 
explore the interior for purposes of settlement, they found, as 
Parkman says, that " foremost in war, foremost in eloquence, 
foremost in their savage arts of policy, stood the fierce people 
called by themselves Hodenosaunee, and by the French the 
Iroquois." They reigned from Quebec to the Carolinas, from 
the western prairies to Maine, but the seat of Empire was where 
the Long House was set up, where the five nations dwelt in 
their villages, where the council fires burned — the heart and 
center of the State of New York. 

In fairness to the other tribes, as well as to complete the 
picture of human occupation that here met the eyes of the pio- 
neers of civilization, we must briefly indicate the names and 
localities of the various Indian nations that dwelt in other por- 
tions of New York State before the advent of the white man. 
Tlieir names variously spelled, and positions variously marked, 
are found upon early maps of these regions, notably upon the 
" Figurative INIap " of 1G14. But we can not say that this in- 
formation can be greatl}^ relied on. These early map makers 
depended mainly upon hearsay, and such tribes as we can more 
or less faintly recognize by the spelling given are generally put 
in the wrong place geographically. 

We turn with much more confidence to van der Donck's map 
of New Netherland of 1656. He was a scholar of eminence, and 
besides by that time several decades of actual colonization had 
enabled students to ascertain definite data on the subject. It 
is from such and other sources that experts in Indian lore have 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 13 

learned siiflficient to tell lis with confidence that east of the 
Iroquois League, about the headwaters of the Hudson River, 
dwelt the Mohicans or Mohegans, while down toward Albany 
and below on the east side of the river were the Wiekagjocks 
and the Meehkentowoons. Continuing southward on the east 
side we meet in succession with the Wappingers in Columbia 
and Dutchess Counties, the Nochpeems in Putnam, and the 
Sint-sinks and Weckquaesgecks in Westchester. West of the 
Hudson we shall, of course, find the way cleared of all other than 
the five Iroquois nations, in the tiers of counties along the Penn- 
sylvania border. 

Nearer the Hudson and below the Mohawk, reaching into the 
triangular pocket with its apex at Tappan in Rockland County, 
we shall find first the Katskill Indians, named after the Dutch 
designation of the mountains, near which they dwelt. Next 
below in the vicinity of Kingston would be found the Warran- 
awonkongs, with the Waoranecks about the fastnesses of West 
Point and Stony Point. We would expect to find the Haver- 
straws and the Tappans in the vicinity of the localities now thus 
known. On Manhattan Island we would hardly find the Man- 
hattes, or Manna-hattas, or Manhattans, as they are variously 
called, for the safest authorities give grave reasons for doubt 
as to there having been such a tribe at all, the name originating 
merely from an exclamation which Hudson and his creAV heard. 
But the Reckgawawjincks dwelt on this island. 

Some of the Raritans of New York dwelt or roamed on Staten 
Island. Long Island, with its hundred miles of eastern reach, 
bore many tribes. At the western extremity, where Brooklyn 
came to be later, the Carnarsees (or Canarsies) ruled supreme; 
the Rockaways (sometimes with a less Anglicized spelling) oc- 
cux)ied Queens County, while Massapequas, Matinecocks, Nesa- 
quakes, and others filled out the space toward the eastern ex- 
tremity, the one name covering them all on van der Donck's map, 
being Matouwacs. It need not be repeated here that all these 



14 THE EMPIIiE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

tribes belonged to the Algonquin family, as distinguished from 
the Iroquois, and Avere at any moment subject to hostile attacks 
from the latter. 

The history of liie occui)atiou of New York by civilized men 
begins, of course, with the discovery and exploration of the 
Hudson Kiver in 1G09. Yet the foot of the white man had been 
set upon New York soil before the arrival of Henry Hudson. AYe 
do not need to claim this precedence for Jean Verrazano, in 1524, 
whose boatful of sailors just passed through the Narrows and 
then hurried back again for fear of a storm; nor for Stephen 
Gomez, who caught a mere glimpse of the headlands separating 
the Upi)er and Lower Bays, in 1525, i)lacing a river of San 
Antonio on the map of Chartres in 1536 by mere conjecture. The 
honctr belongs beyond question to that able explorer and colo- 
nizer of France, Samuel de Chamijlain. Actuated by the thirst 
for glory rather than for gain, his aim was to effect a permanent 
colony, and lay the foundation of a State in the New World. In 
1608 he founded Quebec, and his desire to keep on good terms 
with his Indian neighbors led him to mix himself up in one of 
their hereditary quarrels. 

The Hurons and Algonquins of Canada had felt the power 
of their once subject Iroquois, and despairing of successful re- 
sistance with the ordinary means of warfare at their command, 
they begged Champlain to accompany them on the warpath, 
armed with the formidable flrearms of the white man. The 
Governor of Canada consented to go, taking only two com- 
panions Avith him. The expedition started on its hostile errand 
in May, 1609, when Hudson had been about a month at sea, and 
was perhaps only just then turning back from the North Cape 
toward America. The Huron and Algonquin braves in large 
numbers conveyed the small party of their allies up the St. 
Lawrence in their canoes. They turned into the Sorel Eiver, 
and so by paddling and occasional marches across portages, they 
reached the lake of New York, named ever since after the 
great Frenchman Avho was with them. As they penetrated 



THK EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 15 

farther into the coimtry of the enemy, the days were spent in 
hiding and the nights in stealthy travel. 

At last, on July 29, IGOO, the Indian scouts assured their chiefs 
that they had come upon a war party of the Iroquois, and that 
these, too, were aware of their presence and were read}^ for the 
fray. The spot reached was the vicinity of Crown Point, and, 
according to Indian tactics, at 10 o'clock at night, by a bright 
moon, the battle was opened. The tribe from the North did not 
at once display their auxiliary force. They let the encounter 



/' Tart ni'cuw cAmlierdan^ o^TdeM^'^hakins. C 



~ffsiS<ftf=i*'^y ^i3ie&v>i . *^^~E,' 



'--.-^ 




\rA M 






THE P'IKST VIEW OF NEW AMSTERDAM, IN lG3o. 



open with the usual flight of arrows, then the ranks parted and 
Cliami)lain and his two companions-in-arms stepped forward 
and opened fire. The forest resounded with a strange report 
as of thunder low by the ground; and as the invisible missiles 
felled several warriors, the hitherto invincible Iroquois fled 
from the mysterious enemy, whose destructive possibilities they 
had had no means of fathoming. 

Content with their easily bought victory, the Algonquins re- 
tired toward Quebec, and de Champlain did not follow up the 
exploration hither Avard with any attempts at settlement or even 



16 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

trade. He knew not that the discharge of his three pieces had 
forever set up a barrier against French possession and influence 
in North America, and finally resulted in the supremacy there 
of the Dutch and English allies of the Iroquois, who had been 
forever alienated from France by this act of her pioneer in New 
York State. 

Precisely five Aveeks to a day after this episode in the history of 
French exploration of New York, on Wednesday, September 2, 
1609, at five o'clock in the afternoon (so minute is the record), 
Henry Hudson dropped the anchor of the " Half Moon " into the 
waters of the Ba}^ just around the corner of Sandy Hook. Sent 
by the Dutch East India Company to find a passage to China 
and India through Arctic seas, past Nova Zembla and Siberia, 
he had turned about to find a river or strait suggested to him 
by maps or conversations with Captain John Smith somewhere 
about the fortieth degree of northern lati-tude, which might 
afford a passage to the Pacific Ocean like Magellan's strait 
furnished at the southern extremity of the New Hemisphere. 
From his anchorage near Sandy Hook Hudson could see the 
tides rushing out between Verrazano's " little hills," the head- 
lands of the Narrows. But when he saw the tides rushing in as 
well, the conclusion as to a powerful river being there must have 
seemed erroneous, and the illusion as to a convenient and hoped- 
for strait confii'med. 

Ten days of cautious circumspection were followed on Sep- 
tember 12, by the actual entrance of the " Half Moon " through 
the mysterious portal, and thus began the exploration of the 
Hudson. Day by day the tides were permitted to carry the ship 
bit by bit up the broad channel, by no means discouraging Hud- 
son's theory of another INIagellan strait. The sails were spread 
to assist the tide when greater confidence had been conceived, 
and a stretch of twenty leagues on September 15 carried the ex- 
plorers through the fitful passages of the Highlands. As they 
were " passing by high mountains," the Catskills on their left, 
friendly natives approached in their canoes, and " Indian corn 




HENRY HUDSON. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 17 

and iMtiiipions," as well as fisli, freshly caught, were made to 
increase and variegate the crew's fare. 

On September 18, when the '" Half Moon " was perhaps oppo- 
site Hudson City, the confidence inspired by the friendlj^ con- 
duct of the natives, emboldened the captain to make a landing. 
He was entertained in lavish style by a chief, residing in a cir- 
cular hut, its arched roof and sides covered with strips of bark. 
The feast spread before the Indian's guest consisted of pigeons, 
flanked doubtless with toothsome dishes of succotash, canash, 
or pumpkins; but tlie piece de irsisiaiiec was " a fat dog." As in the 
most authentic accounts of our Indian predecessors, their first 
view of the European's dogs aroused mingled feelings of terror 
and astonishment, doubtless '' the fat dog '' was a well-fed coon, 
or other indigenous animal whose carcass resembled a dog's to 
Hudson's eyes. On September 19 the ship's company were made 
acquainted with the possibilities of a ju'ofitable trade by the view 
of beaver and other skins, surrendered to them for a trifling 
barter. On the 20th the increasing shallowness of the " strait '' 
induced the Captain to send a boat ahead to see if there was to be 
no repetition of the broad and deep passages below. 

'^rhe reconnoitering party had to report that the signs of a river 
approaching its head waters were unmistakable, and that the 
theory and hope of a strait would have to be abandoned. Per- 
haps this advance party had gone up some considerable distance 
beyond Albany; and thus, unconsciously, Champlain for France, 
and Hudson for Holland, had touched in their explorations 
points within New York State at only a few score miles from 
each other, and within less than two months of time. Disap- 
pointed in his quest for a passage to the Pacific, Hudson turned 
his prow southward on September 23, and on October 4 cleared 
the Narrows for Europe, freighted ^vitli news of discovery and 
exploration which has borne marvelous fruit throughout the 
three centuries that have since passed away. The way to the 
very heart of New York State had been opened; the magnificent 
river, lik(^ an arm of the sea, held wide open a direct and inviting 



18 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENT CRIES. 

path for the civilization of the Old World, to come and transform 
the I'ude but teeming wilderness of the New. 

Hudson, the crew, and the " Half Moon " on their arrival at 
Dartmouth, England, in November, 1G09, were all detained by 
the English authorities for the offense of having traded in re- 
gions belonging to England. Hudson himself was not allowed to 
go to Holland at all. His papers, reporting to his emploj^ers, 
the Dutch East India Company, what he had discovered and ex- 
plored, were permitted to go during the winter, and the crew 
with their ship were released and returned to Amsterdam in the 
sirring of IGIO. The papers of Hudson had already had a decided 
effect among a people keenly alive to opportunities for commer- 
cial enterprise and the extension of trade. Even before the 
" Half Moon's " return, a company of a few merchants had been 
organized and were ready to send a vessel to the new great river 
ill America, a ])art of Hudson's crew being engaged for the jour- 
iwx, and Hudson's Dutch mate being made captain. 

This ship came back loaded with skins of beaver and other 
fur-bearing animals, for which a good price could be obtained 
in the markets of northern Europe. The profits were satisfactory 
to a degree. Ax-heads, shovels, tin pans, beads, mirrors, not 
very expensive commodities in Holland, were regarded as ex- 
pensive luxuries in the wilds about the Hudson. The Wappin- 
gers, or Warranawonkongs, or Mohawks, or Nochpeems set upon 
tliem the value of ornaments. They hung ax-heads and shining 
hoe-blades about their necks, and were glad enough to give a 
shipload of bea^ er and other skins in exchange for such jewelry. 
Hence still other ships followed in the wake of the one sent in 
1010, uKU'e than av(^ have any record of. From year to year they 
went out in the S])ring and returned in the autumn, just as the 
" Half jMoon " had done. 

In 1612 Ave come upon the names of two men prominent in 
these early enterprises, Henry Christiaensen and Adriaen Block. 
They chartered a vessel together, and went out in her under a 
('a])tain Kyser. Their experiences and observations led them to 



THE EMriKE STATE IN THREE CENTIiRIES. 



19 



iindertiike an expedition on quite a different plan in 1G13. They 
were themselves sea cajjtains b}' profession, so they fitted out 
two vessels, of which they took command themselves, Chris- 
tiaensen of the '' Fortune," and Block of the " Tiger.'" It must 
be owned that it is not easy to disentangle a very clear account 
of tlieii' doings and the things that happened to them. It seems 
t<t have been their purpose not to return to Holland in the 
autumn. Cliristiaensen went up to the head of navigation on 
the Hudson, and established a sort of rude trade-i)ost there dur- 
ing the summer of 1(118. 

Block was left to do the same on Manhattan Island and its 
vicinity. But the lat- 
ter had the misfor- 
tune to lose his shix), 
the '' Tiger," by fire, 
and so whether or 
not they had pur- 
posed to winter in 
America or not, this 
mischance deter- 
mined the adven- 
turers to stay here. 
It Avould seem as if 
they might all have gone aboard of Christiaensen's ship well 
enough if they had wished to return to the Fatherland. At any 
rate-, they passed the winter on Manhattan Island, putting up 
some bark huts after the style of architecture prevailing on that 
island then, and surrounding themselves doubtless with a stock- 
ade or Avail of palisades. Thus it came to be reported several 
years later that a fort had been built on Manhattan in 1615. The 
site of this interesting assemblage of huts, and the beginning 
of white men's habitation within the bounds of the State of New 
York has been duly marked by a tablet of bronze, and may be 
seen at 39 Broadwa}' in New York City to-daj^ 

Having aided Block's crew in constructing a small yacht or 




WEST INDIA company's HOUSE, AMSTERDAM, STILL 
STANDING. 



20 THE EMriRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

shallop to take the place of the '' Tiger," Christiaensen left him 
to finish and launch it, and sailed up the Hudson River in the 
spring- of 1014 to see what the Indians had collected for him in 
the way of peltries at the head of navigation. To invite a regular 
flow of trade along the avenues which nature had in-ovided 
along the Mohawk from the West, and along the lakes Champlain 
and George from the North, at the point where these trade-routes 
converged, the Dutch captain-merchant resolved to provide a 
permanent station. 

On an island in the center of the river, a little below the junc- 
tion with the Moha^^•k, he built what may with some reason be 
dignified with the name of fort. First there was a magazine or 
storehouse, thirty-six feet long by twenty-six wide. At a distance 
of sixteen feet from either side of the building, and of eleven feet 
fi'om either end of it, he erected a line of breastworks of palisades, 
closely set together so as to form a solid wall impervious to the 
Indian's armws. The (juadi'angle of the '^ fort " thus measured 
fifty-eight feet square within the walls. As a further protection, 
he dug a moat all around it no less than eighteen feet wide. 
Two cannon and eleven swivel guns were taken from the hold 
of the '' Fortune " and mounted at proper intervals, and thus was 
the fort complete. 

The nan}e given to it was Fort Nassau, in honor of the Stad- 
h older or Chief Magistrate of the Dutch Republic, Maurice, Count 
of Nassau, after whom also the Hudson River received for a 
while the name of Mauritius. Christiaensen left for Manhattan 
Island soon after achieving this bit of important history for the 
vicinity of Albany and Troy, leaving in command of the station 
to serve in exigencies of trade and war combined, one Jacob 
Eelkens. Sad to sa^^, the founder of Fort Nassau was killed on his 
way down the river by one or two Indians he had taken to Hol- 
lan<l in 1012, which doubtless argues a not very kindly treatment 
of these aboriginal si^ecimens. 

Meanwhile Block had not been idle down about the mouth of 
the Hudson, and had made some rather important history for 



THE EMl'IRE STATE IN THUEE CENTURIES. 21 

Long Island. The sloop or shallop which he and his men had 
built, was named the '' Onrust " (Restless or Unrest). It was 
just small enough to make it possible to push its little prow into 
hitherto unexplored ba^s or inlets or straits, which had been 
suspected of insufficient depths. 

TJius the inquisitive mariners first ventured to trust them- 
selves to the boisterous eddies and boiling currents of Hellgate. 
Safely coming out of these beyond the Whitestone ledge, or the 
present Willett's Point, there opened before them an unexpected 
body of water, the Long Island Sound. It had not hitherto been 
supposed that there was any such water back of the line of coast 
we know now as Long Island, or that therefore this long stretch 
of level surface, with its background of hills, was an island at 
all. Going on farther east, and looking into the rivers and bays 
of Connecticut, naming these and the islands in their course by 
good, round Dutch appellations, of which Block Island alone 
remains, Block came across a ship of the Fatherland, exchanged 
places with its captain (perhaps a son of Christiaensen), and 
went to Holland, arriving there on October 1, 1614. 

He had made some new discoveries. Others had merely gone 
over the track marked out by Hudson. Long Island S(>und was 
something new. Now, in March, 1614, the States General, or 
Congress of the Republic of the United Provinces, had promised 
a charter of incorporation for exclusive navigation and trade 
to any company of merchants who could show any new countries, 
rivers, bays, what not, which they had discovered. 

On October 11, 1614, Block was before the States General with 
his " Figurative Map," showing how he had fulfilled the condi- 
tions of the promised charter, and, accordingly, there was issued 
then and there the instrument creating the " New Netherland 
Company," the original document being still preserved among 
the national archives at The Hague. The monopoly of trade and 
navigation was granted to about fourteen merchants and sea 
captains, of the cities of Amsterdam and Hoorn, then close com- 
mercial rivals, the list being headed by no less a person than a 



22 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

former Burooiiiaster of the Dutch metroi)olis. It was to oo into 
effect on January 1, 1G15, and to be in force three years. 

Encouragecl by the government in the way tlmt all merchants 
covet, even down to onr oAvn day and in our own enlightened 
republic, because it assures quick and great profits for a time, 
and puts off an evil day of reckoning to convenient distance, 
the New Netherland Company diligently exploited the regions 
of the New World, to which the}^ alone had access. Still their 
only permanent station, or factory, remain(Hl the one at the head 
of navigation, or Fort Nassau. The situation had been well 
chosen to invite trade, and also for its security from attack by 
hostile Indians. 

But it wai^ not ])roof against the more formidable assaults 
directed by Nature at the breaking up of winter. It suft'ered 
severely each spring, but finally, in 1G17, the swollen flood and 
rushing icefloes made a clean sweej) of all man's handiwork, 
cariwing away magazine and stockade, and (Obliterating the 
moat. Then Jacob Eel kens sought a less exposed position on the 
west bank of the river, on a low hill in the angle formed by the 
influx of Norumn's Kill into the Hudson, about four miles south 
of Albany. Fort Nassau was transferred to this hill on the 
mainland. 

Unconsciously, we have entered into the realm of legend and 
poetry, and at the same time come upon a crucial event in the 
history of the contact of New York colonization with the abcn-ig- 
inal Indians. IMain, prosaic Norman's Kill was the Indian's 
'' vale of TaAvasentha," that '' green and silent valley," where 
Longfellow tells us '' dwelt the singer Nawadaha," made sacred 
also by the footsteps of Hiawatha. The rise of ground on which 
the second Fort Nassau was built was called " Tawassgunshee " 
by the Indians, and here, in 1618, a memorable event took place. 
It was now nine years since the Carabines of Champlain and his 
two companions had spread death and consternation among the 
ranks of the Five Nations. They had fled abashed before a mys- 
tery too great for them then. But they were shrewd observers. 



THE EMl'IUK .STATE IN TIIKKE CENTURIES. 



23 



They had learned that there was nothing snperiiatiiral about 
a musket, and powder, and balls, althouj^h exeeedinj^ effective 
in warfare beyond anylhinj; that arrows or hatehets could do. 
Had they ])ut these weapons of tlie wliite men in their own 
hands, notliini;- could stay their coiHjuest. The advent of the 




THE " FIGURATIVE MAP," LAID BEFORE THE STATES-GENERAL IN 1614. 



traders into their very territory, and their eagerness to obtain 
peltries, seemed to offer the chance they so greatly desired. The 
(reneral Council of all the Five Nations was called together to 
meet on the hill of Tawassgunshee, near the new Fort Nassau, 
whence came forth Commander Eelkens and his officers. The 



24 THE KMrillE STATE IN THKEE CENTUIIIES. 

council iires were liji;lited, tlie caliiiiiet of peace duly smoked by 
all parties, and the long-drawn eloquence of the Indian orators 
was let loose. There were present groups of natives also of 
other tribes, the Algonquins of the neighborhood, Lenni-Lenapes, 
.AFohegans, Minquas, something after the fashion of the old 
iiomau triumphs, to give evidence by their presence of the con- 
quering might of the people of the Long House. 

The upshot of the orations on the one side, and the more 
business-like remarks of the Dutch officers, was that the Five 
Nations should fui'uish the Dutch traders exclusively with the 
furs that fetched such high prices in Europe; while these in 
turn should give in exchange only to the tribes of the Iroquois 
League the muskets, carabines, with powder and shot, upon 
which they set so high a price for ijolitical reasons. It was the 
rude political economy of the forest, not quite outgrown in 
great cities that should be more cosmopolitan — monopol}' and 
protection combined. Horrified historians, in recounting inroads 
with pillage and murder upon the settlements of civilization in 
the later New England and even New York, have no mild terms 
of condemnation for the Dutch in thus recklesslj^ arming the 
Indians, and placing them so much nearer on a par with the 
white men in warfare. But 3'et the main result of this treaty of 
Tawasentha was beneficial and far-reaching for the progress of 
civilization in North America, especially if we liohl the notion 
that civilization was assured its best progress by the occupation 
of America by the Angh)-^?axon type of it. 

As one authority remarks : " The compact thus solemnly and 
ceremoniously formed was never seriously violated. It was the 
basis of a lasting friendship between the Iroquois and the Dutch, 
to which the English succeeded, and which raised a perpetual 
barrier to the encroachments of the French from the North." 
There was serious question for many decades, if not nearly a 
century, whether domination and development of North America 
should be by a Latin or a Teuton race. The Latin race has cer- 
tainly not done much for South America, and it is at least open 



THE EMPIUE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 25 

to doubt whether the branch of it which once held Canada would 
have done much better for North America. 

And the settlement of that " most momentous and far-reaching 
question ever brou.ght to an issue on this continent," as Dr. 
Griffis calls it, dei)ended almost entirely on this other ques- 
tion, as he continues, *•' which side should win and hold the 
friendship of that powerful Confederation of Eed Men who over- 
awed or held in tribute the Indians from the Mississippi to the 
Atlantic, and from Lake Champlain to the Chesapeake." There- 
fore Avas the carabine's discharge on July 29, 1609, of such por- 
tentous consequence to France, whose soldiers dealt death 
thereby among the Iroquois. And, therefore, was the treaty of 
Tawasentha, in IGIS, establishing inviolate friendship between 
the Iroquois and the Dutch, of such great moment to the history 
of civilization in America. 

On January 1, 1618, had expired the three years of exclusive 
privilege for the New Netherland Company. They naturally 
desired an extension of time. But other companies or individuals 
had contrived to elude their chartered monopoly, x^roducing end- 
less complaints before the States-General. That body was, there- 
fore, inclined to give ear at this time to a scheme wdiich had 
been before the country for some time. In 1602 had been erected 
the Dutch East India Company, with vast exclusive privileges 
for trade and conquest in the East Indies, with millions of money 
invested, upon which liigli percentages were paid in dividends, 
so tijat in 1609, when it sent out Hudson as a bye-experiment in 
the " Half ^loon," it had disbursed to its shareholders the com- 
fortable dividend of 75 per cent. In 1601 one William Usselinx 
began to agitate the erection of a similar company to exploit 
the Western Hemisphere; or, rather, as the result of his agita- 
tion, begun several years before, he was asked to elaborate on 
paper a precise plan for the enterprise. This went before various 
legislative bodies, the Burgomasters of Amsterdam and the 
Provincial Legislature of Holland. 

Just when the discoveries of Hudson and Block occurred to 



26 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

give a great stiiuulus to such a scheme, there was truce between 
the Dutch Republic and Spain, hasting from 1009 to 1021. A com- 
[)any, such as Usselinx contemplated, could only live by depreda- 
tions on Spanish fleets and territories in America. The New 
Xetherland Company was formed, as we saw; but when its 
charter expired the end of the truce was near, and after various 
discussions and modifications of Usselinx's plan, in June, 1021, 
file charter of the Dutch West India Company was signed. Yet 
the full capital of over seven million guilders was not fully col- 
lected until 1023. To this company, among many other, and to 
itself much more impoi'tant things, was committed the duty of 
colonizing the regions about the Hudson, which had already 
been designated as New Netherland in the charter of 1011. 

The West India Company was dominated by the commercial 
spirit, and had very little concern with ideas of statesmanship. 
Quick and enormous profits there were in capturing treasure 
fleets; only the far-off future could make returns for coloniza- 
tion. Besides this reluctance to perform a stipulated duty, there 
was the difficulty of finding colonists. The natives of the Dutch 
provinces were willing enough to go by the thousands to every 
part of the earth, on voyages in the interest of trade or discovery. 
They had no reason for leaving their free and prosperous Repub- 
lic to encounter the hardships of the wilderness and build up 
prospective States. 

But Holland was full of refugees from the religious persecu- 
tions of other countries : the Pilgrims from England, the Hugue- 
nots from France, the Walloons from Belgium or the Spanish 
Netherlands. The Pilgrims asked to be sent to New Netherland 
early in 1020; but for certain reasons their petition was not 
granted. Then a company of Walloons, composed of some fifty 
or sixty families, made a similar application, in 1022, and as the 
West India Comjiany was now formed, although not fully cap- 
italized, this petition met with better success. A ship, large for 
that day, of two hundred and sixty tons, or over three times the 
tonnage of the '' Half Moon," was set aside by the company to 



THP] EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



27 



convey these Walloons to America. It was appropriately named 
the " New Netherland," and left Amsterdam in March, 1G23. It 
had a measnrably prosperous passage, reaching- the mouth of 
the Hudson in jMay. 

A deposition, by one of the passengers, made as late as 168G, 
informs us that some eight or ten of the Walloons were left 
on Staten Island; but it seems hardly credible that so small 
a company should have been left defenseless among the untrust- 
worthy savages, unless as punishment for some offense. The 
" New Netherland " proceeded up the river, but its unusual size 
was against it. Wlien about opposite Esopus Creek no further 
progress could be made until her cargo had been transferred to 
boats. No one was left on shore here, however, which shows 
that the settlement of Kingston had not 
yet begun. With her cargo lightened, 
she was able to reach Tawasentha, or 
Norman's Kill. Here was still the small 
redoubt called Fort Nassau. 

Greater things, however, were con- 
templated now. A few miles further up, 
on the west bank of the Hudson, the 
engineers and soldiers accompanying seal of new netherland. 
the expedition marked out the lines of a regular fort. It was 
provided scientifically with four angles, trenches were dug, and 
walls of earth thrown up. The Stadholder of the Republic had 
now become Prince of Orange (by an elder brother's death), as 
well as Count of Nassau, and, chosing now the more lordly name, 
the stronghold was called Fort Orange. About this clung the 
settlement of the same name. Eighteen of the Walloon families 
were set apart to constitute the colony, and, while soldiers made 
their fort and traders tramped the forest, these Walloons put 
spade or plow into the virgin earth, and the fertile soil readily 
resix)nded. 

Captain ^lay and the " New Netherland " sailed away with 
the remaining families to commence a settlement on the Dela- 




28 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TllUEE CENTUIIIES. 



ware Kiver. But the liistory of civilized settlement of a really 
permanent character had be<>nn for New York State, and Albany 
may claim the glory of the experiment. It was fraught with tre- 
mendous results, destined to reach the condition of Empire in 
this development also, which had already been presaged for our 
State by geologic formation and the supremacy of native tribes, 
whose seat of government was here located. 




SCHUYLER AKMS. 




CHAPTER II. 

Tin: FOUR DUTCH DIRFX'TORS. 

T was not till three years after the founding of Fort 
Orange, or Alban}^, that regular colonial government 
for New Netherland was initiated. Captain Cornelius 
Jacobsen jMay, of the '' New Netherland," had also 
been invested with the oftlce of Director of the Colonies to be 
established by him. But he was to hold office only for one year. 
In 1624 William Yerhulst was given the office, also for only one 
year. Three shi^^s had followed the expedition of 1623, with 
more AYalloon families on board, who were distributed among 
the two settlements at Fort Orange and on the Delaware. Yet 
colonists had also been added to the number of the traders on 
Manhattan Island, and in 1621 one of the governing board of 
the West India Company had sent a hundred head of cattle, 
horses, and hogs to aid the work of agriculture there. Thus a 
small settlement preceded the coming of the first Director Gen- 
eral, Peter Minuit, in 1626. 

The form of govei-nment at the head of which Minuit stood, 
was simple enough. Associated with him was a council consist- 
ing of five members, with a secretary and a .sellout -fiscaal, or treas- 
urer. In the course of the year 1625 this new system of regular 
and i)ermanent colonial government had been determined on, 
the approval of the States General, or Eepublican Parliament, 
being necessary for its institution, and the nomination of the 
various incumbents to the offices needing to be confirmed by the 
same high authority. The first Director General has generally 



30 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

been called a German, because he was a native of Wesel, a town 
on the borders betAveen Germany and Holland. But it is to be 
observed that he held the office of deacon in the church of Dutch 
Reformed refugees, established there a half century before to 
escape the fury of Alva's persecutions in the Netherlands. He 
must, therefore, have been of Holland parentage or descent. 

Peter Minuit and his Council of Five embarked in the good 
ship the " Sea Mew," and on December 19, 1G25, set sail from 
Amsterdam. It was a severe winter, and the ice was thick in the 
broad Y immediately in front of the city, and also much impeded 
the passage over the Zuyder Zee. Hence the " Sea Mew " did 
not clear the channel of Texel until January 9, 1626. It was a 
bad time of the year for crossing the ocean, especially in vessels 
so small and frail as even the largest of that day. The first 
colonial government of NeAv York was within five days of four 
months in making its way across to its seat of authority, arriving 
opposite the Island of Manhattan on May 4, 1626. There was 
scant welcome there for so distinguished a company, and no 
lodgment to be compared Avith the quarters on board ship; hence, 
doubtless, Minuit and the council made no move at first to leave 
it. There were some settlers on the island, agriculturists Avho 
had begun to test the soil to see how it would yield to methods 
of cultivation Avhich had already made Holland the garden of 
Europe, and her farmers the instructors of that century. 

Tliere, too, were the men pursuing the traflflc per barter with 
the natives. For their accommodation some primitive huts had 
already been erected amid the uncleared forest, or on the open 
space near the southern extremity of the island at the confluence 
of the North and East Kivers. But whether in agriculture or 
trade, much more pronounced advances had been made at Fort 
Orange up the river, and more at the heart of the Indian country. 
Now, however, that upon agricultural settlement and the pur- 
suit of trade was to be superimposed for the benefit, development, 
and protection of both, a civil administration, there was ob- 
viously but one place to be selected for the seat of that. The 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



31 



choice fell upon Manhattan Island, marked by nature as the spot 
for a commercial center, inviting the commerce of the world with 
its wide-open arms of bay and rivers. 

Permanent occupation and the tilling of the soil involved also 
a manner of dealing with the Indians not hitherto pursued in 
New Netherland. The Dutch had occupied stations far up the 
Hudson, on the Delaware, and on Manhattan itself, and had 
not purchased any land 
from the aboriginal own- 
ers. The reason was that 
only a transient traffic 
w a s contemplated, as 
much to the interest of 
the natives as to that of 
the traders; forts being 
only put up to guard 
against untoward attacks 
of the uncertain wild 
men, and the cultivation 
of the soil being meant 
mainly as an accessory to 
trading, to provide food 
for the agents of the com- 
pany. 

A different policy was 
now being inaugurated, 
and the natives were ap- 
proached on an entirely different i)rinciple. For the country 
now definitely' to be taken into possession as the nucleus of a 
settlement, perhaps a State, a new nation, the authorities in 
Holland determined to make honorable terms with the native 
proprietors in purchase. And so we find Minuit and his council 
summoning the chiefs of the tribe of the Eeckgawawanks, who 
owned these parts, and offering to buy the Island of Manhattan. 
The terms were easily arranged. The twenty-two thousand acres 




THE " NEW NETHERLAND. 



32 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

of island, with hill and plain and forest and stream, could 
easily be spared by the Indian nomads. And when it was pro- 
posed to give them in exchange sixty guilders' worth (equivalent 
to one hundred of our dollars in modern values) of pots and cans 
and kettles and ax-heads and cloths or blankets of gay colors, 
the natives were anxious to close the bargain, and thought them- 
selves rather the gainers over the simple Dutchmen, who did 
not appreciate the glamour and glory of beads, and mirrors, and 
gleaming tin pans. 

This, then, was the auspicious founding of the Empire State as 
a colonial province. The acquisition of the territory was prompt, 
followed up by acts of occupation, of which we can count 
three. First, there was the construction of a fort, growing out 
of the military necessities of the situation. Its lines were laid 
out with scientitic precision by an engineer accompanying the 
expedition, and upon the site, familiar to later generations, 
almost down to the nineteenth century, and still easily' identified 
by the inhabitants of New York City. It is i)leasant to note, 
however, that peace with the Indians was a matter of constant 
assurance, inasmuch as the fort was left in a very incomplete 
state, Avith walls only half up, and without ordinance, during the 
entire term of the first Director. 

A second act, indicating a permanent purpose of occupation, 
was one demanded by the necessities of trade. A warehouse of 
stone (or brick) was erected about two hundred feet east of the 
east A\all of the fort, before which stood a flagpole flying the 
West India CompaiiA^'s flag of orange, white, and blue, and a 
small gun on a carriage, for the signaling of sunrise and sunset. 
Here gathered the Indians of the neighborhood with their 
l)eltries, and here, too, Avere stored, for later shipnrent, the 
cargoes of raAV hides, brought down the river from Fort Orange 
in boats. The third act of occupation was in the line of iu- 
duslry: a mill Avas built to the northeast of the fort, not a thou- 
sand feet away from it. It Avas operated by means of a horse. 




yy£. t/ i/vnuams tttiv 




THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 33 

the huge iiiillstoiie rolling around hi a trough and thus crushing 
the grain. 

The Secretary of the Province, Isaac de ]\asieres, had not era- 
barked with the others on tlie " Sea jMew." He arrived during 
the summer, in August, in the " Arms of Amsterdam." The 
good sliij) was loachnl with the f)eltries that had accumulated 
on the island, and sailed home in September, 1G2G, bearing 
nearly eight thousand beaver skins, more than eight hundred 
otter skins, and an assortment of mink, muskrat, and lynx, or 
wildcat, skins, numbering nearly one hundred and fifty. It had 
also a cargo of logs of oak and nutwood. By that time the har- 
vest had been gathered in, and samples were sent to Holland of 
wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckAvheat, canary seed, beans, flax — 
surely an encouraging variet3^ 

The arrival of a Director-General on Manhattan had already 
liad the effect of drawing people from the upper settlement, and 
it must have been before or after June, 162G, that Joris (George) 
Jansen de ]\apallo had come down from Fort Orange with Cate- 
lina Trico, his wife. If before June, their baby Sarah had been 
born on Manhattan Island and in that month; if after, it may 
have been born at Fort Orange. At any rate, in September, be- 
fore the '' Arms of Amsterdam " sailed, the interesting event had 
taken j)lace, and was duly reported at Amsterdam on its arrival 
there in November. 

The difliculties of the enterprise were many, and it was neces- 
sarily attended with hardships. When next we get a clear 
glimpse of affairs, in 1G2S, calamity has alread}- come to increase 
discouragement. During the winter, far more severe than either 
Dutchmen or Walloons were accustomed to, the fierce cold led 
to reckless expenditure of fuel, not too carefully guarded. The 
people liv(Hl mostly in huts of bai'k, sides and roof both con- 
structed of this frail material. A too great accumulation of 
fire-logs in one of the huts had its inevitable effect, and soon a 
Vv^hole succession of cabins clustering up against the half-risen 
wall of the fort were consumed bv the conflaiiration. 



34 THE EMPIRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 

Ill tliat year, too, there was a threat of Indian hostilities, which 
caused tlie farmers to hurry in from the scattered plantations, 
to huddle together Avithin the incomplete fortification. When 
thus all collected together, the population counted two hundred 
and seventy souls. This was not so bad a showing for numbers, 
perhaps, but as yet there Avas not prevalent a feeling of j)er- 
manence in the settlement. Man^- of these men had entered into 
the service of the West India Company for definite terms of years, 
Avhich were constantly ex])iring. Even the AYalloon families 
seem to have had thoughts of returning, showing that neither 
had they stipulated for a continuous abode. 

Minuit, however, a man of excellent character, honestly de- 
voted to the interest of his masters, the West India Company, as 
well as those of the colonists subject to his rule, was doing 
everything in his power to develop the resources of the sur- 
rounding country, and by the hope of successful industry to en- 
courage the colonists to remain. A^arious experiments at manu- 
factures Avere made under the stimulating influence of the Direc- 
tor's hopeful energy. A AA'indmill Avas put up for saAving Avood, in 
addition to the gristmill already in operation. 

He set some parties to dig into the clay banks and try to make 
bricks, but the results Avere not good, as compared with those 
obtained in Holland. Plenty of material la^- around in the shape 
of oyster shells for burning lime for mortar. One man, who 
understood that business, Avas placed over several assistants, 
in hoj^e that potash might be obtained; but the exijeriment did 
not succeed. The making of salt by evaporation of the sea 
water surrounding the island Avas pursued Avitli diligence, and 
the extraordinary heat of the summer w^as of great assistance, 
^linuit Avas careful to point out to the settlers the abundant 
sui)plies that nature provided in the way of forest game, as well 
as its fruits, roots, herbs, serving for food and medicine both; 
and Dutch skill at gathering supplies of fish from the briny deep 
Avas abundantly reAvarded. 

But we must not dwell too long upon events and conditions 



THE EMPIUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



35 



in one of the two places in the hiter Empire State, although chief 
interest naturally centers npou the point of largest and most 
wonderful development. ]Sot much that can claim recording- 
was occurring elsewhere, except, of course, at that other nucleus 
of State development — Albany. And for this section an event 
of the greatest importance took place in 1C29, the so-called 
granting of the '' Cliarter of Privileges and Exemptions." It 
was this instrument wliicli created the Patroonships, and bore 
lasting and useful fruit only in the colonization of the country 
about the head of navigation on the Hudson. 

Something had to be done to encourage colonization. This 
was still tlie unpopular, because the immediately unprofitable 
part of the AA^est India Company's work. There was much more 
excitement, as well as divi- 
dends, in the capture of 
such fleets of the Spaniards 



as the Silver Fleet, taken 
with the greatest ease by 
the company's fleet under 
Admiral Piet Hein, in the 
harbor of Matanzas, Cuba, 
in 1G2S, when some fifteen 
million guilders' worth (|G,000,000) were taken at once, and a 
dividend of 50 per cent, was declared and paid out to share- 
holders. Yet there was tlie prosaic and commonplace province 
of New Netherland, and nothing but colonization would do here. 
In order to encourage this, the charter just mentioned was 
issued in 1029. By its provisions each shareholder of the com- 
])any who would, within four years after making known his in- 
tention, found a colony in New Netherland consisting of fifty 
persons above the age of fifteen years, could secure thereby the 
title of Fatroon (patron) of the land that would be granted him, 
Avhicli might measure four miles along any navigable stream, 
and an indefinite distance back therefrom. This land would have 
to be pui'chased from tlie natives. The Patroon was intrusted 




THE FIRST WAREHOUSE. 



36 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

with the goverument over his colonists, in civil and judicial 
matters, the right of appeal to the company being left open to 
them. Colonists coming over at their own expense would re- 
ceive as much land in possession as they could cultivate, and 
were to be exempt from taxes for ten years. But the Patroons 
and free colonists ^^'ere shut out from the privilege of trade in 
peltries with the natives, except where the company had no 
factories, and then the hides must be sent to Manhattan Island, 
and an impost be paid of one guilder for each skin. 

As the result of this charter, various portions in the neighbor- 
hood of Manhattan Island were taken up by the ^^ould-be 
Patroons. These were all directors of the company, and in antic- 
ipation of the charter, which they knew would be issued, had 
sent agents to America to select good spots. It was the modern 
staking of claims on government land, and the trick of coming in 
on the ground floor of corporations, combined. It caused great 
disgust and indignation among the rest of the Directors, who 
had not been quite so quick; and Minuit was blamed unjustly as 
a party to these proceedings, with which he had nothing to do. 
The Island of Manhattan had been exempted from these prom- 
ised grants, but many sections in the vicinity, on Staten Island, 
in AVestchester County, in New^ Jersey, were erected into 
Patroonships. But the enterprise of colonization was not vig- 
orously followed up in these, and soon came to an end, the lands 
being repurchased by the West India Company. 

Only one of the l^atroonsliips proved a success, and that was 
the one established by Kiliaen van Kensselaer, also one of the 
Amsterdam Directors of the West India Company. He took up 
large territory on both banks of the Hudson, in the vicinity 
of Fort Orange, reaching far back into the interior. From the 
first he acted on the sensible principle that colonization can only 
be made permanent and profitable through agriculture. He 
built along the banks of the river substantial dwelling-houses, 
barns, and stables, spending his money liberally to furnish these 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 37 

with horses, cattle, sheep, and the requisite implements for cul- 
tivating the soil. 

The land was also laid out in convenient farms, and these 
were rented at a reasonable fi^ui'e; the harvest was to be offered 
for sale first to the Patroon, and the i^rain was to be ground at 
his mills; but these conditions were so managed as to be con- 
veniences and advantages for the colonist, rather than hin- 
drances in the wa}^ of his prosperity. A judicious permission of 
trade in peltries also served to attract and benefit settlers on his 
ground, although it produced occasional conflicts with the colo- 
nial authorities doAvn the river. 

Perhaps the Van Eensselaer Patroonship would not have 
been the exception among all the others, had not the proprietor 
been fortunate in the selection of his agent or factor. This was 
Arend Van Curlaer, a first cousin of Van Kensselaer himself, 
who was sent over to take charge of affairs in 1630. His vig- 
orous management of affairs for the colonists endeared him to 
them; but his wise, kind, and honorable dealings with the sur- 
rounding Indians has actually made his name immortal. So 
deep an impression did he make upon these children of the forest 
that they adopted his name as a generic term for governors 
and kings. The Eoj^al Governors of New York in colonial times, 
and those of Canada to-day, go b}^ the title of Kora in their lan- 
guage, and (^ueen Mctoria is to them the Kora Kowa, or great 
Kora. 

In consequence, mainly of the unpleasantness connected with 
the too hasty appropriation of Patroon lands, Peter Miuuit was 
recalled in 1G32, and left his station in the ship the " Eendracht," 
accompanied by the Schoutfiscaal, and perhaps, also, by the first 
and only clergyman of the settlement, of whom more anon. His 
succ(^ssor was Walter Van Twiller. There is every reason to 
su])])ose he was a near relative of the Van Eensselaer family. 
The Patroon's sister, Maria, married one Eykert Van Twiller; 
while Johannes, who succeeded his father as Patroon, married 



38 THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIUEE CENTURIES. 

his cousiu, Elisabeth N'aii Twiller, perhaps the sister of the new 
Director-Oenei'a] . 

AVell connected though lie was, A^an Twiller was but a (Ques- 
tionable specimen of a man and officer. The trustworthy history 
of lUetlrich Knickerbocker distiuiiuislK^s him as the hrst of New 
Netherland's governors, wliich marnfests a himentablo weakness 
in Mr. Diodrich's knowk'dge (d' history, and somewhat invali<hites 
other r(Miiarkable statements in his entertaining annals. But 
some of Van Twiller's well authenticated acts almost rob the 
picture which Knickerbocker draAvs of him of the elements of a 
caricatur(\ Tliere were rumors that liis ])l•i^■ate lif(^ was not fre(^ 
from yices; as a public man lie was guilt v of acts of self-aggran- 
dizement, whi(di finally wrought him dismissal in disgrace. 

In A])ril, l()3o. more than a year after Peter ]Minuit had left 
the colony, the new Director-CJeneral arrived at ^Nfanhattan 
Island. The oidy oflicial who had been left to represent the West 
India ('om]>any was the secretary, John Van IJemund, wlio had 
superseded Secretary de Kasieres even Ixd'ore ^Minuit's recall. 
He was retained by Van Twiller, whose coum-il consisted of four 
members. The same shij) that brought these high otticials car- 
I'ied to these regions also two very im])ortant functionaries of 
another sort — a clergyman, the IJev. EycM'ardus Bogardus (Or 
plain Eyart Bogaert), and a sidioolniaster, ^Nfr. Adam Boeland- 
sen. 

Until ISoS ii was sup])(-se(l that ^Ir. Bogardus was entithMl to 
the distinction of haying been the first minister of the gos]tel 
to arrive and settle in New Ycti-k (Mty and State. But in the 
above year there was unearthed in Holland the actual original 
manuscript letter of a Bev. Jonas ]Michaelius, dated August 11, 
1(528, and written on Manhatlan Island. I'rom this nn)st valua- 
ble document Ave learn that earlier in that year this clergyman 
had ai-rived, and that he h;id organized a church, two (dders 
having been chosen, one of whom was no less a person than 
Director Minuit himself. Services were held during all his min- 
istry in the loft above the horsemill; indeed, even before his 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



39 



eomiiiij; two lay-readors, also officers of the eom]3any, had been 
Avont to hold religious services in that same place from the time 
th(^ mill was bnilt. Something better was provided on the ar- 
rival of this second clergyman. An unpretentious church build- 
ing was erected on Mhat is now Pearl Street, some distance 
southeast of the fort, and directly on the shore of the bay. 




Peace had ju-evailed during Minuit's term, 
although once there had been a threat of war, v'i'i 
but it was rather among the Indian tribes 
themselves than between these and the colonists. Yet now came 
the second Director, attended by a formidable military array, a 
company of soldiers, numbering one hundred and four privates 
and officers. In keeping with this significant provision, Van 
Twiller vigorously pushed the completion of the fort, whose 
walls soon rose to sufficient height, grass-grown banks on the 



40 THE EMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

outside flanked with (iiiarry-stone within. The era of building 
was marked also by the erection of a roomy Governor's Mansion 
along the east side of the fort's quadrangle, and humbler bar- 
racks for the soldiers on the west side. 

By all these means, the ap])earance and condition of the settle- 
ment must have been greatly improved, and Van Twiller's 
energy in carrying out these building enterprises, doubtless 
under instruction from his <Miiplo3'ers, deserves to be commended. 
But his character broke down under the temptation to appro- 
priate land for himself, for which his position afforded him ample 
opportunities. By a roundabout method, whereby his own share 
in the transaction was at first concealed, some sixteen thousand 
acres of fine, level land came into his possession at Flatlands, on 
Long Island. This transaction took place in 1G3G, and marks the 
beginning of settlement for that portion of New Netherland. 
Soon after Van Twiller added Governor's (then called Nootcn, 
or Nut) Island to his private clomain, while, perhaps for the sake 
of symmetry, Blackwell's and other islands in the East River 
Avere likewise gathered into the Director's possession. 

His term is noted for the beginning of complications and dis- 
putes with the English colonists as to the right to occupy certain 
territories. In 1G33, b}^ direction of the company. Van Twiller 
bought a large tract of land on the west shore of the Connecticut 
Kiver. Block had discovered this noble stream, and thus there 
was the right of discoveiy on the side of the Dutch Republic, but 
it was deemed safer to fortify this claim by one of purchase from 
the native projirietors. The tract included the site of the present 
city of Hartford. 

Not long after a number of families from Watertown, Rox- 
bury, Dorchester, and Newtown, in ]Massachusetts, encouraged 
by the governors of Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies, de- 
liberately set out for this tract, carrying a house, constructed in 
sections, taken apart. They sailed up the Connecticut, past Fort 
Good Hope, stationed on its banks by the Dutch. The house was 
set up where the town of Windsor is now, and Saybrook was at 



THE EMPIUi: STATE IN 'IIIUEE CENTURIES. 41 

the same time foimded at the mouth of the river. " In view of all 
these circumstanc€\s," says oiie, " one act of Van Twiller's stands 
out in strong contrast with whatever features of a less favorable 
kind may be discovered in his character. When, a few years 
later, the colony at Saybrook was massacred by the Pequods, 
and two English girls were carried away captives, the Director 
at once sent an expedition to recover them. By the promptness 
and address of the Dutch the captives were restored to their 
mourning countrymen." 

At quite the opposite extremity of his province. Director Van 
Twiller was also annoyed b}^ encroachments of the English. A 
nuiuber of adventurers from Virginia came up the Delaware and 
took possession of the abandoned Fort Nassau there. The leader 
of the party was (reorge Holmes, and Thomas Hall, an inden- 
tured servant of his, took this opportunity to escape, and carried 
the news of this incursion to the headquarters of the Dutch 
Colonial Government. Upon this Van TAviller acted with vigor, 
sent a boatload of soldiers to Fort Nassau, wTio easily captured 
tlie unsuspecting occupants, and brought them back with them 
to ]Manhattan Island. They were sent back to Virginia in a 
Dutch vessel : but the names of George Holmes and Thomas 
Hall are found later among those of the well-to-do settlers 
about Fort New Amsterdam. It seems that they had been in- 
duced, on the promise of a tract of lan<l, to introduce the culture 
of tobacco in New Netherland. 

An intrusion of a still bolder kind occurred in the same month 
of Van T^A'iller's arrival. On April 18, 1G33, an English ship 
entered the ba^^ above the Narrows, and anchored off the fort. A 
boat pulled away for the shore, and a conference was asked with 
the authorities. It ^yl\» learned that the ship was the " William," 
in the service of a company of London merchants. Their agent, 
who came ashore, was none otlu^r than Jacob Eelkeus, the com- 
mander of the old Fort Nassau on Tawassgunshee hill, and the 
hero of the famous treaty witli the Indian Five Nations in 1G18. 
He had been dismissed from the service of the Dutch West India 



42 THE EMPIRE yXATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Coiupaiiv ill 1()28, because of an act of treachery toward an 
Indian chief on th(^ Connecticnt Elver, which had made the tribe 
tliere suspicious of the Dutcli, and intcrfeic<l sadly with the fur 
tra(h\ He was, therefore, now the nioi'(' diliiicnt in the service 
of tlie rival English company. 

Eelkens, in the nauie of his new masters, asked no favors of 
the Dutch Director. They claimed that Henry Hudson's nation- 
ality conferred on Kniiland all the rights to o('(U]»ation and trade 
in these re<;ions which were deducible from his discovery. Hence 
the '' AVilliam " Avould proceed to the head of navii^ation and 
trade at will with the natives. Accordingly, Eelkens returned to 
his ship, the Euiiiisli ensitiu was run up, and the auchor bein.ii 
weighed, wind and ti<le soon carried the intruders out of sight. 
Van Twiller's action in resi)onse to this astounding defiance was 
much of the nature of oprra coinifjiic. He summoned all the deni- 
zens of the settlement about the fort to comc^ to the river's edge 
and drink a bumi)er to the glory an<l authority of the Prince of 
Orauge and the l\ei)ublic. The ap]M'al was not lost upon the 
people, but it had very little effect u]>on the ]>rogress of the 
- William." 

Captain David Pietersen de Vries had just come to ^ranhattan 
on his first visit in couimand of a vess(4 in the interests of one 
or two directors of the West India Company, who wished to 
secure a Patroouship. (^n his advice, Ynu Twiller was led to 
take more decisive measures against the intruding stranger. 
A pinnace, a caravel, and a '' Inn," manned by a part of the 
soldiers who had come over in the governor's shi]) wcn-e sent 
after the " William." They found that Eelkens had lost no time 
re-establishing his former relations Avith the INIohawks, establish- 
ing an impromptu magazine on an island opposite Fort Orange. 
In spite of the oi)position of the cohuiists there, a large quantity 
of peltries had been securely stored upon this island. The Dutch 
soldiers compelled the English sailors to load the '' William " 
Avith the rich booty, which was promptly unloaded again at the 
West India Company's storehouse at Manhattan, and the " Will- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIKEE CENTURIES. 



43 




DAVID PIETERSEN DE VRIES. 



44: THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

iam " sent about its business minus a cargo. Endless contro- 
versy and recrimination between tlie Englisli and Dutch govern- 
ments grew out of the " William '' incident. It but presaged 
the inevitable result of England's unscrupulous claims. 

In view of these troubles with the English neighbors, it seems 
incredible that Van Twiller should have been guilt}^ of the piece 
of duplicity which caused his removal, t^till was colonization 
by agricultural settlement the bane of the West India Company. 
A recent Dutch authority states plainly : " Agriculture yielded 
too little to save the colonists even from starvation, and the com- 
pany, obliged to provide them without cost with food and other 
necessities, was less than eA^er inclined to put into operation new 
efforts to increase their number." This would hardly comport 
with a very thorough attention to the interests of the colony. 
But there were worse things than that. The articles of food and 
requisites for agriculture, which the company' was forced to ship 
to America and distribute to the colonists without cost, were 
sold to the people of the neighboring English colonies. This 
statement is deliberately made by the same Dutch authority: 
"It (the company) began also to provide the neighboring Eng- 
lish colonies with oxen, horses, and sheep from Holland, and 
with tobacco and salt from the West Indies." 

Tliis was congenial work for the dishonest Van Twiller. But 
it disgusted a less exalted officer of the company, the Schout- 
flscaal Lubertus van Dincklage. He charged the Director with 
this breach of faith with the company's own people, and was 
dismissed for his pains and sent to Holland without payment of 
the salary overdue. This banishment proved a boomerang, how- 
ever, for Van Twiller. Van Dincklage obtained the ear of the 
States-General, and he made out so clear a case that the comi)any 
was roundly rebuked, and after repeated demands to do so they 
reluctantly dismissed the unworthy Van Twiller, who had served 
them too well in this nefarious business. 

Perhaps in spiteful emphasis of this reluctance to remove an 
officer who had not scrupled to carry out their unfaithful policy. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 45 

the West ludia Company nominated a man as his successor of 
most unsavory antecedents. William Kieft had been declared 
a bankrupt in business at one time, by no means so nearly uni- 
versally inoffensive a matter then as now. Whether as the re- 
sult of this disgrace, or because of the charge made by some that 
Kieft had appropriated money intrusted to him for the payment 
(»f the ransom of Christian prisoners in the hands of Turks, his 
portrait had been nailed to the gallows in La Rochelle, France. 
He arrived at his post on Mai'ch 28, 1(338. What was to be ex- 
pected from his rule was soon evinced by the remark he made 
to the colonists who came to welcome his advent among them, 
that he possessed more authority there than the Prince of Orange 
in Holland, because he was independent of the States-General. 

Instead of being provided with a council of five members like 
Minuit, or of four like his immediate predecessor, the West India 
Company appointed no council at all, but left its choice to him- 
self. His arrangements on this score were significant of much. 
He chose a single member only, and lest even he might not be 
pliable enough, and should place some obstruction in the way of 
the working of the Director's own sweet will, he granted this 
single council member one vote, and arrogated two votes to 
himself! Thus equipped for government, the colonists must have 
looked forward to immense comfort and prosperity under the 
new administration. 

As the result of the exposure of the ruinous policy of the West 
India Company, the States-General of the Dutch liepublic had 
insisted on certain radical extensions of privilege to the colonists 
in New Netherland. The company sought to avert the changes 
deemed so perilous to their interests by proposing some insig- 
nificant modifications in the charter of 1629, establishing the 
Patroonships. The States-General rejected these as wholly un- 
satisfactory. Then, at last, in 1638, they were compelled to throw 
, open to all the colonists the trade between New Netherland and 
the neighboring settlements all the way along the Atlantic coast 
from Newfoundland to Florida. They had to relinquish even the 



46 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

iiionopol}' in peltries. Trade between the mother country aud 
the colon}', however, was to be carried on in the ships of the 
company. 

Mncli as was conceded by these new regulations, the States- 
(leneral were not yet satisfied. As statesmen, rather than mer- 
chants, the}' were abb' to j;rasp the far-reachin*;' interests of all 
the citizens of llic liepublic and of the colonists in America, 
rather than exclusively coiilcmplate the qnestion of quick i^rofits 
for a few shareh(d<1ers, with no regard for the colonists at all. 
Bent on making- trade as unrestricted as ])ossible, and to en- 
courage colonization by making its returns available for as many 
as possible, there was finally issued the famous charter of 1040. 
J\y this, in the first place, the privilege of becoming a Patroon 
was extended to other persons than the directors or shareholders 
of the West In<lia Company exclusively; it being open to any one, 
who, within three years, should populate the district acquired 
with i)ermanent settlers. Now, too, any person might undertake 
the voyage between Holland and America in his own ships, pro- 
vided the trip ^^'as made directl}' and the cargo be not broken 
under way. To encourage adventurers of smaller means, a tract 
of four hundred acres of land was promised to any one who 
would transport to America and settle there five persons, besides 
himself, above the age of fifteen, hunting and fishing privileges 
being also accorded. 

A still more radical concession was the right to manufacture 
woolen, linen, cotton, or any other such like goods. Should the 
number of the colonists, by these ample inducements, be so in- 
creased that villages or towns could be formed, these would be 
allowed to have their own government, the magistrates being 
chosen out of a double number laid before the Director-General. 
JNFoi'eover, the company offered to give free transportation to 
farming people who wished to emigrate thither with their fam- 
ilies: and promised such a farm, furnished with agricultural im- 
plements, horses, and cattle, at the yearly rental of a hundred 
guilders and eighty pounds of butter. Indeed, the company was 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



47 



promising more tlian it could (or perliaps intended to) perform; 
and its very liberality makes one somewhat suspicious of its sin- 
cerity, as the sequel abundantly justified. 

Yet the fair and fine words that butter no x>arsnips, now, as 
always, had some effect upon sanguine natures. During Kieft's 
administration tlie country around Manhattan Island was being 
diligently settled. In Westchester Oount}^, just across the Har- 
lem Kiver, Jonas Bronck located himself on a plantation, his 
name immortalized t(vday by the I\iver Bronx, which, in turn, 
has given an appellation to one of the Boroughs of the Greater 
New York. He loaded a 
ship at Amsterdam with 
bricks and other buihling 
materials, agricultural im- 
plements, horses, cattle, 
and carried over a sufficient 
number of farmhands, be- 
sides his own famil}', to en- 
title him to the grant of 
four hundred acres. Offi- 
cers of the colony, council 
members, secretaries, and 
such took U13 similar claims 
along the Harlem. 

Iteligious bigotry in New England sent refugees for asylum 
to the colony of the Dutch Bepublic, and these people were 
eagerly welcomed, and were let in cheerfulh' under the condi- 
tions and privileges of land proprietorshii) so recently extended. 
Thus Anne Hutchinson and her adherents settled in the ex- 
treme corner of Westchester, just over the present Connecticut 
boundary, and John Throgmorton, witli another band of un- 
orthodox religionists, occupied the country in the vicinity of 
Throg's neck. 

This, too, was the day for the beginnings of actual settlement 
on Long Island, a by no means unimxiortant appendage of the 




THE CHURCH AT FLATLANDS. 



48 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Empire State. A IJev, Mr, Francis Doiiglity, ratlier loose in his 
views of tlie Connuunion or Baptism, and, therefore, sometimes 
eiToneousl}' made ont to be a Quaker, acquired a hirge tract in 
what is now the town of Newtown, in (Queens County. And even 
a. little before that Kings County had received a body of per- 
manent denizens at Gravesend, the admirers and fellow-believers 
of the Lady Moody, who had sacrificed a fine farm near Salem, 
Mass.^ for differing some few hair-breadths from the Puritan 
authorities as to the virtues of baptism. 

A few years later, after the Indian wars, a beginning was made 
in the settlement of Brooklyn, the city that did since entirely 
absorb Kings County. In 1GI6 two or three colonists from Man- 
hattan Island took up ground there, instituting the town of 
Breucklen, soon after to develop into a scattering hamlet, on the 
spot where thousands pass and repass in the eager pursuit of the 
commodities of a luxurious civilization. 

The influx of emigration has alwa} s paid its tribute to Man- 
hattan Island, in the way of a generous percentage of inhabitants 
deposited there. It was so under Kieft's rule. Material improve- 
ments were soon visible here. The freedom of intercourse with 
neighboring colonies, up and down the Atlantic coast, made 
visits of important merchants so frequent that the Governor 
could no longer undertake to extend to them the free hospitali- 
ties of his own mansion. A fine, large inn was therefore put up, 
dignified with the name of Siadfs Uerherg (Town Tavern) a 
monument to the increasing commercial importance of the 
nascent New York, and later converted into its first Cit}^ Hall. 

Made ashamed of the poor barn-like structure on Pear Street, 
which was the colony's only church, the Director, in generous 
rivalry with Captain l)e Aeries, subscribed liberally toward a 
building more v\'orthy of the growing prosperity, and a con- 
venient wedding ceremony calling the elite of the settlement 
together to see the daughter of the since famous Anneke Jans 
married to the first physician or surgeon, gave the shrewd 
chief magistrate a cliance to secure liberal subscriptions from 



THE EMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 49 

festive guests, mellowed by frequent potations. Thus, in 1642, 
arose the ('hurcli-in-the-Fort, at a cost of twenty-five hundred 
guilders (|1,000), eonstructed of stone or briek, and standing 
for nearly a century, until destroyed^by fire in 1741. 

MeauAvhile matters ha<l progressed so well at Fort Orange, 
under the fostering care of Patroon Van Rensselaer, that the city 
of Albany can boast of being but one year behind New York in 
the erection of its first church. At a point on his lands where a 
number of people gradually found it convenient to imt up their 
dwellings in closcn' proximity, there insensibly grew up a sort of 
community like a town, which received the name of " Bevers- 
wyck " (the resort of beavers), a reminder that even among 
these cultivators of the soil the fur trade occupied a prominent 
place in their thoughts. The date for this beginning of Albany's 
municipal history is given as 1634. 

Three years later, it is stated on somewhat doubtful authority. 
Mynheer Van Rensselaer visited his " colonie " in person. But 
he need not have done so, for his affairs were safe in the hands 
of Commissary Van Curler. He stood like a rock for the interests 
of liis employer, while doing everything he could for the colo- 
nists, opposing them only when they yielded to the temptations 
of the peltry trade, to the prejudice of the Patroon. In this ad- 
herence to duty he found it needful even to place himself in an- 
tagonism to Adriaen Van der Donck, sent out as Sclioutfiscaal, 
or Sheriff, or Attorney, by the proprietor. 

The latter did not like to brave unpopularity by forbidding the 
fur trade to those who were not licensed to pursue it. Driven 
from the colony, he contemplated starting a rival Patroonship at 
Katskill; but, frustrated in this, he finally settled near Man- 
hattan Island, and became Patroon of the region where the 
city of Yonkers is now, named after him as Jonker, or Knight. 
In 1642 the Rev. John Megapolensis (in plain Dutch Van Mech- 
elen; or, perhaps, Grootstadt), was sent by Van Rensselaer to 
be the first minister of the settlement at Beaverwyck, and in 
1643 a church was built thirtv-four feet lonti' and nineteen feet 



50 THE EMl'IKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

wide, furnished with pulpit and sonndin^-board, pews for the 
dignitaries of church and 8tate, and all of nine benches (without 
backs) for the commonalty. 

Tlie good doniine, not long after the opening of his ministry, 
had an opportunity to show the spirit whereof he was. Fathers 
Jo(lues and Bressani, of that devoted band of Jesuit mission- 
aries, had been captured by Mohawk warriors on the !r>t. Law- 
rence as they returned from the far West. In 1643 news came 
to IJeverswyck (hat Fatlier Joques Avas at one of the Mohawk 
villages with two Indian converts, and that he was subjected to 
horrible tortures and threatened with death. Urged by Domine 
Megapolensis, and his own generous interest. Van Curler went 
forth and calbnl a ccmncil of tlie Mohawks, to intercede for the 
cai)lives. No pei'suasions could move them to spare the Indians, 
but they consented to grant the life of Father Joques, yet they 
wouhl not surrender him, even for a ransom of six hundred 
guilders' worth of goods. He was given his liberty and he used 
it to go about the forest and from village to village seeking to 
make converts to his faith. Persuaded at last by Dutch traders 
to make his escape to Reverswyck, the Mohawks' demand for 
the return of their prisoner Avas evaded by the offer anew of a 
ransom, which was now accepted. Father Joques Avas sent to 
France, free of charge, in one of the ships of the company. The 
next year Father Bressani Avas also rescued or ransomed from 
the Indians, and likewise sent home. 

INIade dauntless by religious zeal, I'ather Joques returned to 
Canada in 1640. His sojourn among the MohaAvks pointed him 
out as a fit ambassador to be sent to tlie council of the Five 
Nations, to efl'ect that often attempted, but never attainable, 
aim of the l^rench — peace and friendship Avith the Iroquois. The 
discriminating savages respected the sacred character of the 
ambassador, and perhaps deceived by their treatment of him at 
this time. Father Joques resol\^ed to go among them once more 
and establish a permam^nt mission among the Five Nations. 
But no sooner did he again come among thorn in this private 



THE EMPIRE fsTATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



51 



capacity, than lie was seized as tlieir returned prisoner by the 
MohawlvS. It was in vain the councils of the other nations re- 
monstrated; the tribe claimed its barbaric rights, and torture 
and deatli became the portion of tlie devoted preacher of the 
Gross, before the benevolent Dutch could interfere or had even 
learned of his impending fate. 

Through all the nearly thirty years of intercourse between the 
Dutch traders and settlers on the one hand, and the Indians on 
the other, from 1(j13 to 1()41, no disasters of savage raid or massa- 
cre had ever befallen the people of New Netherland. It was a 
record which scnrcely one, if any, other colony in America could 
show. It was destined to 
be broken under the third 
Dutch Director, and, as 
might be supposed, it was 
in large part due to his 
mean and vindictive tem- 
per. In the early summer 
of 1G40, a party of sailors 
from a ship boun<l for the 
Delaware, lamlcd, as was 
customary, on Staten 
Island, near the present 
Toinpkinsville, in order 
to take in their supply' of 
water. They found some 

excellent young pigs running about the shore, and could not 
resist the temptation of catching them, with a view of having on 
board a few quarters of appetizing bacon or fresh pork. Sailing 
away on their voyage, the (luestion arose who had stolen the pigs. 
The owners too readil}' accused the Indians, and complained to 
that effect to the Direct(n\ 

Hastily concluding that the Indians were guilty, Kieft sent 
over a force of men, under his secretary, V^an Tienhoven, who 
fell upon the unsuspecting Karitans dwelling on the island. 




EARLIEST MAP OF NEW YORK CITY. 



52 THE EMPIRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 

biii'iiiiig their c-oriitields and rntlilessl}' killinj^i several of the 
braves. Kieft declared he had liiveu orders not to proceed to 
extremities needlessly, but possibly his men pretty correctly in- 
terpreted tlie spirit ami temper of their master. It was the first 
throw of the firebrand, and a confiaiiration was snre to follow. 

The next year, 1(341, occurred tlie nnmler of (Maes limits, who 
f(dl the A ictim of reven<»e for a wronii done fifteen years before. 
The mni'derer was a yoiniLi, Indian of the \N'eck(inaesiieck tribe, 
dwelling in ^^'estcllester ('onnty, who had seen his uncle killed 
by three nei^ro slaves belonj;ini»' to Director Minnit in l(i2(), and 
of which no <me ever knew till this act of retaliation, performed 
as a, duty according to the Indian code. Nevertheless, the cnl- 
l>rit Avas demanded from the tribe, who refused to deliv<M' him. 
A force of eii^hty men, under Ensign \'aii Dyck, were sent into 
the woods of Westchester, losing their way and finding no 
Indians. I>ut awed by this demonstration, they were induced 
to make peace on the condition of surrendering the offending 
,youth, which was never done. 

Now, for some time petty and isolated acts of hostility to(dv 
place, giving evidence of the mischief that was brewing, until 
Kieft was precii)itat(Ml headlong into an act of inexcusable and 
unpardonable atrocity. In the month of February, 1613, the 
^lohawks and confederates were on the warpath, driving, as 
usual, everything Algonquin before them. Two fugitive tribes 
hoped for protection from the Dutch government, and fled down 
toward ^Manhattan Island. One party stopped at Taulus Hook, 
or Pavonia, on the Jersey shore opposite; but a second crossed 
the river and lodged in the Avoods clear across the island 
at Corlear's Hook, o])posite the present Brooklyn shore. Kieft 
determined to seize this opportunity of thoroughly punishing the 
Indians for their recent assaults on the colonists. He sent an 
ex]»editi()n against each of these cowering tribes, on the nights 
of I'ebruary 27 and 28, and a wholesale slaughter was the result, 
only a few escaping, and neither women nor children being 
s])ar(Ml. 



THE EAiriKK STATE IN TJlitEE CENTUIIIES. 53 

Now the war was on with a vengeance; a howl of indignation 
went np from all the sniTounding tribes, and the fnry of blood 
and devastation filled eveiy savage breast and banded all the 
Indians together in one common cause. The settlements in West- 
chester were wi]>ed out, Mrs. Hutchinson, John Throgmorton, 
and Jonas Bronck, with a score of their dependents and followers 
were killed. On Long Island, Francis Doughty was driven from 
Newtown and his plantation destroyed. Lady Moody was at- 
tacked, and only her extraordinar}^ precautions and strong de- 
fenses enabled her to resist the foe till relief could come. 

In ir)4:4 there was a conference for peace Avith the Indians on 
Long Island, wliicli Captain I)e Vries, who had won the con- 
fidence of the Indians, attended. But the Long Island Indians 
could not control the river tribes, and not until a formidable war 
party had invaded AVestchester and defeated an intrenched party 
of Indians there, was peace finally established on a permanent 
basis, in August, 1(U5. The colonists drew a long breath of 
relief, and celebrated a Thanksgiving Day on September 5, 1645, 
in gratitude to a kind Providence. 

A feature of the Indian war of much political importance m 
the history of the State, was tlmt it gave occasion for the begin- 
nings of popular re])resentation in affairs of government. Under 
the stress of the calamities he had brought down upon tlu^ colony, 
Kieft could effect nothing with his council of one member, with 
a double vote for himself. Twice he called together the body of 
colonists, and asked them to select ''Eight Men" (a feature of 
Dutch municipalities) good and true, who might advise him 
as to the course to be taken, aud through whom necessar^^ fun<ls 
might be raised. I)Ut Avh<Mi these representatives asked for 
reforms of a general nature, they were disregarded or dismissed, 
or the pronsises mnde to tliem were not kept. 

As a result of his conduct in the Indian complications, Kieft 
was recalled in 164(), and in May, 1647, his successor arrived, 
the redoubted and familiar figure, Peter Stuyvesant. Like the 
first Director, he was a thoroughly respectable and honorable 



54 THE e:mpire state in three centuries. 

man. A soldier by profession, he had been the company's Direc- 
tor on the Ishmd of Cnracao, in tlie West Indies, still in the pos- 
session of Holland. In an action aj^ainst another West India 
island, in the service of the company, Stnyvesant had been 
wonnded in the leg, necessitating treatment and subsequent am- 
putation in Holland, and while there the appointment to New 
Netherland came to him. But with all his sturd}^ honesty as a 
magistrate and excellence as a man, his soldierly training was 
no guaranty that he would be any more successful in governing 
freemen than those who had gone before him. 

His estimation of popular rights was soon made manifest. On 
his arrival he said that he had come to be as a father among his 
childr(Mi, but this relation did not augur much attention to the ex- 
pressed wants or wishes of the people, if they were looked upon 
as mere irresponsible and immature beings, whose father natur- 
ally knew better what they needed than they did. His acts car- 
ried out the ominous ])romise of this spoken sentiment. Two 
patroons who had also become residents of the colony, brought 
suit against the retiring Kieft, finding abundant ground for com- 
plaint in that ex-Director's many acts of injustice. 

The suit came before the new Director, who at once ended the 
proceedings by condemning the two phiintiffs to a. heavy fine 
and banishment from the colony, on the simple ground that it 
was treachery for a subject to prosecute a magistrate, no matter 
how great an offend (n' lie might be. This contention was a gro- 
tesque one, especially among the citizens of a republic. The 
]daintiffs, of course, received immediate redress in Holland, and 
Stnyvesant was rebuked for his absurd ruling. 

As the years went on matters did not improve. Complaints of 
arbitrary and autocratic measures, in utter disregard of the will 
of the people under his care, were repeatedly sent to the States- 
General. At one time Stnyvesant Avas summoned to Holland, 
but he sent the colonial secretary, Van Tienhoven, to defend 
him. As the one thing he could not force from the people was 
their money, except with their consent, his need of funds com- 



THE KAiriRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



55 



pelled him at last to call a meeting of the coh)uists. He re- 
(Xuested them to iiomiuate eighteen representatives, from whose 
number he selected nine men, as was wont to b(^ done in commu- 
nities in the fatherland. These were to consider a scheme of tax- 
ation, which was to be imposed with their consent. But Stuyve- 
sant did not scruple to override the decision of this body when 
it suited him, or when they stood too inconveniently in the way 
of his own measures. 

The friction of authorities inflamed hearts on both sides. 
Adriaen Van der Donck Avas now a resident on Manhattan 
Island, and his ability as a lawyer made him a valuable leader 
of the opposition. He 
was preparing an elab- 
orate complaint against 
Stuyvesant, to be sent to 
Holland, Avlien, without a 
shadow of right, Stuy- 
vesant ordered a search 
of his house and seized his 
papers. The nine men 
noAV delegated three of 
their number, headed b^^ 
Van der Donck, to go to 
Holland in person and get the ear of the States-General. This 
body finally determined upon a measure wliereby the authority 
of Stuyvesant, as Director of the Province, might be separated 
fi'om that as a magistrate governing his imme<liale neighbors. 

That is, they gTante<l incorporation as a city to the settlement 
about Fort Amsterdam, which was to be known henceforth as 
NeAV Amsterdam. Tlie measure went into effect on February 2, 
1C53. It had been su])posed that the people would be per- 
mitted to choose the municipal officers. But in this they were 
disappointed. The two Burgomasters and the five Schepens (a 
sort of Aldermen Avith judiciary functions) were appointed by 
the Director himself. The Schout or Sheriff was appointed by 




THE governor's HOUSE AND THE CHURCH, 1G42. 



56 THE EMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

the States-(ieiieral themselves, aud they selected Joachim Kiiy- 
ter, one of the accusers of Kieft, whom Htiiyvesaut had banished. 
l?iit Kuyter was soon thereafter kill(Ml by an Indian, and then 
the autocrat appointed one of his own creatures to the place. 

It was about this same time that the various settlements on 
Loll"' Island were organized into townships. Breuckelen and 
Flatlands and Flatbush had had for several years one official 
between them, a sort of town clerk and slierilf combined. Now 
to tliese and other towns were given separate clerks and sheriffs 
and schepens, or judiciary officers. And thereafter when New 
Utrecht and Bushwick were first occupied, provisions for town 
government were made from the beginning. It was the same 
with Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, and Hempstead, in Queens 
County. These privileges fostered a spirit of self-assertion in 
these rural communities, which dared to measure itself with 
Stuyvesant's autoci-atic temper itself. In November, and again 
in December, 1653, delegates to the number of two or three from 
each of tliese country towns met at the City Hall with the two 
Burgomasters and one Schepen of New Amsterdam, and did not 
hesitate to put on record what the^^ thought of Stuyvesant, and to 
forward the same to the home government. 

Affairs at Fort Orange, or Beverswyck, do not call for much 
notice from the liistorian at this time. There were a succession 
of disputes between the Director and the Patroon's officers, as to 
rights of trade and matters of jurisdiction. Occasionally a strain 
occurred in the relations Avith the Indians, but i)eace was nmin- 
taincd by r('])eat('d concessions on both sides. An event of note, 
liowever, Avas the founding of Schenectady in 1G61. Some of the 
denizens within the Patroonship disliked the system of feudalism 
to which they were subjected. No less a person than Arend 
van Curler himself sympathized with them, and a company under 
his leadership went forth westward, and, purchasing from the 
Indians a tract of land on the " Great Flat " on the Mohawk 
River, they settled at the Schenectady, or open door of the " Long 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 57 

House," drawn a little further Avestwtird before this earliest 
march of civilization along the Mohawk. 

But now, also, the long interval between New Amsterdam and 
Fort Orange began to be occupied at a point almost midway be- 
tween the two. Van der Donck's attempt to settle at Katskill 
had been followed by a grant of the territory there to a lireucke- 
len colonist, who had rendered some service to the government; 
and since that Van Kensselaer's agent had bought it as an ap- 
pendage to the '' colonie." No regular settlement was begun 
there, however, as there was at " li(mduit," now Eondout, or a 
part of Kingston. The nani(> was derived from a redoubt built 
here in 1614. No further <)ccupati(ni took place, nor was even 
the stronghold furnished with a garrison. At last, about the 
year 1052, a number of families escaping from the feudalism of 
Rensselaer^>^^vyck, took up land hen^ on a tract called Atkar- 
karton by the Indians, on the Esopus IJiver. 

The Indian raids which troubled ^lanhattan again in 1055, 
interfered with progress also u]) here, until Stuyvesaut's firm 
hand restcued order. Again, three years later, the natives be- 
came troublesome, and Stuyvesant came up with fifty soldiers, 
and soon made terms with the natives. He deuianded that the 
colonists concentrate their dwellings within a ])alisaded village. 
It was scarcely finished when the thoroughly reconciled Indians 
made the people a ]»resent of the whole tract. Hence the place 
was called "• Wiitwyck " (willing, or free-will town), which ob- 
tained a charter or ]iatent in 1001. A sheriff was appointed. In 
1000 a church had been organized, and the Rev. Hermanns Blom 
became its first pastor. 

It was on Long Island that the first intimations of the storm 
that burst in English con(}uest over New Netherland began to 
a])pear. liumblings of the approaching catastrophe to Dutch 
rule had been heard time and again. Encroachments on the Del- 
aware and the Connecticut had been scarcely held back, and the 
frustration of the " William's " errand only made the English 
more determined to press the claim which bade her owners defy 



^S THE ILMriRE STATE IN TllUEE CENTURIES. 

X'au Twillcr. On J.oni^ Island the people of New England de- 
scended at will, and organized town after town. 

Already, in KiSS, Charles I. had i)]'ocnred a grant of the whole 
island to the Earl of Stirling, and although agents of the Earl, 
who ocoasionallv A'isited New Amsterdam, were dismissed with 
(•ontem]>t or sent as prisoners to Holland, pious congregations, 
under the guidance of pastors, kept crossing the Sound and fixing 
llieir alxide on llie island on the strength of patents and grants 
made on the authority of Stirling and his countess. Thus a part}- 
of emigrants, recently arrived from Norfolk at New Haven, set- 
tled at Southold in 1040. In the same year Southamx^ton was 
settled by a com])any from Lynn, jNIass., who had first made an 
attempt to seize land on Cow Bay. Being repulsed thence by the 
Dutch, they rounded Montauk Point and organized a town and 
church simultaneously, fortified by a i)atent given by an agent of 
Lord Stirling. In 1G39 Lyon Gardner bought from this sanu' 
agent the island of that nanu', and took up his residence on it. 

Thus gradually the various townships in Suffolk County were 
founded, and within the bounds of New Netherland, in Queens 
Count}', English toAvns existed under the rule of the Dutch 
Directors. These Puritan towns of Long Island gave Kieft, and 
especially Stuyvesant, endless trouble, and prepared the way 
very materially for the final con(|uest. They formed at one time a 
sort of confederation, of which one Captain Scott was elected 
" President." In the early part of 1604 this doughty Captain- 
President rode on a raid through the towns of Kings County, 
w itiioiii doing much bodily harm to anj^body. They were in collu- 
sion Willi the expedition of Colonel Nicolls, which came in August, 
1(;04, to denumd the surrender of New Netherland, the story of 
which is familiar. Proclamations were dated from places in 
Long Island, and when Stuyvesant reluctantly yielded, one 
slii>ulali()n w;!s that Ihe army of Long Islanders, ready to cross 
the Easi Piver, should not be permitted to ai<l in the reduction 
of New Amsterdam, nor land on ^NFanhattan Island. 

"We have thus come to the end of Dutch rule over the territorv 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CEN'LTIRIES. 



59 



of the Empii'e State. That tlie coloiiists 3delded without a bloAV. 
even though animated to sternest resistance by their galhint 
though unp()i)ular eonmiander, was not so much the result of the 
liopelessness of resistance, or a hick of resolution in the hour of 
danger. It was owing to the persistent mismanagement and bad 
faith of the mercantile corporation to whose tender mercies their 
fate had been committed for over forty 3^ears. A careful review 
of the exasperating situation of the colonies throughout these 
years is made by a Dutch historical scholar of eminent authority, 




and may, therefore, well claim the merit of impartiality. It will, 
Uierefore, be interesting as well as instructive to observe what 
he says, and we will reproduce his sentiments in almost his own 
words, transfei-red, of course, to an English dress. 

We have alifady seen how j)lainly he Sjx'ahs of tlie conduct of 
the company in selling provisions and cattle and horses to, rival 
colonies at a profit, Avhich it Avas bound to convey to the colo- 
nists for nothing, while they were starving for the lack of these 
necessities. Speaking of the Colonial Government, it is rightly 
remarked as a terrible disadvantage that life and property and 
honor and liberty were unconditionally at the mercy of council 



60 THE EMl'IUK STATE IN TIIHEE CEXTUUIES. 

iiieinbc^'S — Tlic ci-calui'cs (tf the Dii'CH-tor-Ciciieral. The decree of 
1630 Avas calculalcMl lo deter every one from n^paii'iii^- to a coun- 
try wliere Ik* was liaiii]»('r(Ml in the choice of a tra<h% and Avas not 
free to dispose at will of the fruits of his ]al)or. 

]Mucli relief seemed to be granted by the liberal provisions of 
1(>4(). lint, as AA'e intimated, the excessive liberality raised sus- 
]>ici()ns of sincerity. The company had granted these privileges, 
jK'i-forcc, at tlic nrgiMii <leman(ls for imi>rovement on the part of 
the States-Cieneral; and no sooner had compliance (juieted that 
bod}^, and it had Avithdrawn its attention to other affairs, than 
the company returned to its old oi)pressi()ns and restrictions. 
The offer of free transi)ortation Avas taken back even in the case 
of cattle. Deeds for lan<ls ti'ansferred to colonists who fulfilled 
the stipulated conditions, Avere given to such as Avould agree to 
submit to all the former imposts and exactions. None of the 
liberties of citizenship and self-government Avhicli Dutchmen 
Avere accustomed to exercise at home Avere permitted in the 
colony. And Avlien the t^tates-tJeneral, rei)eatedly appealed to 
for redress, sought to interfere for the maintenance of right, it 
found itself hindered by the baneful influence of the company, 
even upon the deliberations of this highest legislature of the 
Kepublie. The States of llolhmd, thr((Ugh its representatives, 
enjoyed the greatest i)oAver here because it paid 57 per cent, of 
all the expenses of the CommouAvealth; and the Amsterdam mer- 
chants Avho AA'ere in the ^A est India Company kneAV Iioaa^ to keep 
this poAverful delegation partial to their interests as against 
Ihose of the colonists. 

"Thus," concludes our autlior, ''the colonies remained under 
the rule of merchants, Avliose conduct Avas a perpetual illustra- 
tioln of the simple truth, floAving even from the A^ery nature of 
man, that government and business do not go together. Much 
])r()fit and little outlay was ever the motto of p<n'sons to whom 
was intrusted the management of States across the seas. Hence 
their defenses Avere neglected, emigration rather o])posed than 
encouraged, natives oppressed, the colonists regarded and 



THE EMPIRE S'lATE Ix\ THREE CENTURIES. 



61 



treated as rivals. The adversities Avitli which these had to con- 
tend everywhere, place in the clearest lijj;ht that freedom of 
labor and of trade are a vital condition of colonial prosperity, 
and that the mother conntry in the end (h)es injury to itself in 
beiiii;' intc^it oidy npon its own profit, and to withhold from pri- 
vate enteri)risc inii)ortant branches of indnstry." 

It can not be said for a moment that Eni^land's statesmen and 
England's merchants were any the less at fanlt in the application 
of these principles. It was, indeed, the obstinate refnsal to recoi;- 
nize these that led finally to the Kevolntion. lint the Dntcli 
colonists had before them an ini])ressive example of greater 
political freedom among the colonies dependent npon England. 
In ir>43 the four colonies of Massachusetts, I*lymouth, Connect- 
icut, and New Haven had formed themselves into a league, 
calling itself " The United Colonies of New England." Such 
union was, as Professor Fiske remarks, " a tacit assumption of 
sovereignty on the part of the four colonies.'" 

It argued a degree of political autonomy which was amazingly 
in advance of that enjoyed by the colonists in New Netherland. 
If England could permit such a state of things among her colo- 
nists, what might ]iot be expected from her rule over their own 
benighted and oppressed province? Hence they rejoiced at the 
chance of repudiating the autocratic Stuyvesant, and casting off 
the intolerable yoke of the West India Company. It was yet to 
be seen whether in changing masters so eagerly they had not 
jumped from the frying pan into the fire. 




DE PEYSTER ARMS. 



CHAPTER III. 

Tuio ciian(;k to bimtisii dominion. 

HE iiicii who have successively been the chief magis- 
trates of the territor}' now known as the Empire 
State, are naturall}' of more than a passing interest 
to those anxious to become acquainted witli its 
:innals. We shall do well, therefore, in each instance to pause, 
however brieti}^, to get a glimpse of their career, both before and 
after their occupancy of the position which brings their names 
before us. 

Colonel liichard Nicolls had been born in 1024, and was thus 
just forty years old when he seized New Netherland. He was the 
son of a barrister, but on his mother's side was descended from 
the Earl of Elgin. He was a student at the university when the 
Civil War broke out, and left his studies to take command of a 
troop of horse on the side of the King. He became attached to 
James Stuart and followed him through his exile on the Conti- 
nent, serving with him under Turenne and Conde in the armies 
of France. At the Eestoration such loyal attachment did not 
fail of its reward. Nicolls obtained a colonelcy, held an office 
in the Ivoyal household, and when Charles II. bestowed New 
Netherland upon his brother James, now Duke of York, Nicolls 
was selected to carry out the scheme of conquest, and was made 
Governor of the territory. It must be oAvned that he proved a 
faithful and efficient servant, so far as his master's interests were 
concerned. 

The city of Ncav Amsterdam, and the province of New Nether- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 63 

land, were at once given a common name, that of New York, in 
honor of their pi-incely proprietor. The new title as applied to 
the cit}' has proved to be a sad misnomer, for although New York 
City is now and has been for nearly a century a ucio Amster- 
dam, another metropolis and queen of commerce in another 
republic, it never attained anything of the character of another 
York, a quiet, uncommercial, ecclesiastical capital. But for the 
])rovince, the name New York did as well as any other. 

Especially about Manhattan Island the reproduction of con- 
ditions in Yorkshire was diligently attempted. As in the English 
county, there were Ridings {i.e., Thrithings, Thirds), or the 
three divisions, East, West, and North Eidings; so there w^as 
an East Riding, equivalent to the later Suffolk County on Long- 
Island; a AVest Riding, including a part of Westchester County, 
Newtown township of Queens, all of Kings County and all of 
Staten Island; while the North Riding took in the four remaining 
towns of Queens County. The rest of the province was pre- 
sumably not sufficiently populated to be given an}- further civil 
distinctions. Nicolls was to rule it as governor, with the assist- 
ance of a council, consisting of five members. Alatthias Nicolls 
possibly a relative of the governor, was appointed secretar^^ of 
the province, and Thomas Delavall, Collector and Receiver-Gen- 
eral. These officers were among the five members of the Council. 

Almost immediately after the surrender of New Amsterdam, 
a force was sent up the river to take formal possession of the set- 
tlements there. No resistance was, of course, made, and in re- 
turn peaceful possession was taken. Fort Orange and its neigh- 
boring Beverswyck were renamed Albany, a subsidiary title of 
the Duke of York. A garrison was placed in the fort; the van 
Rensselaer Patrooiisliip Avas not disturbed, but a new title was 
required to be taken out for it at New York. At Esopus new 
officials were appointed, and a garrison left at the fort under 
Captain Brodhead, the ancestor of a noted historian of the State. 
The captain's severity led to a revolt of the settlers here a year 
or two later. The village brewer, much esteemed b}' his neigh- 



64 



THE EMTIKE STATE IX TIIKEE CENTURIES. 



bors, and a sergeant of militia, \\'as arrested for some trivial 
ofl'ense. The people became very iiidiiiiiant, and in their attempt 
to rescue their tOAvnsman one of them was killed by a soldiin'. 
Nicolls had to interfere to restore qniet, but whih' he censnHMl 
lii'odhead he did not remove him. 

Bnt while everything moved qnietly u]»(>n the scene of the con- 
(jnest iiseir, tlie on! rage was vigoronsly resente<l by the Dutch 
l{ei)ublic, and several years of war followed. These were the 
days of the great drawn battles on the sea between the English 
and the Dutch under De Ruyter. At one supreme moment, in 

IGGG, the great Admiral 
sailed with a fleet up 
the Thames, destroying 
the English shii>ping at 
Chatham, and the boom 
of the invader's cannon 
was heard in London. 
At last negotiations for 
l)eace were entered 
ui)on at Breda, in Hol- 
land, in 1GG7, and by 
the terms of the treaty 
England was confirmed 




"^j«c -"^ 



^Jl -r -^'W.' 



THE DAMEN HOUSE. 



^f^/. 



in the possession of 
New York, and Suri- 
nam Avas given in exchange to the Dutch Republic, and b(»tli 
in P^ngland and Holland it was thought that the latter had the 
best of the bargain. 

The Peace of Rreda gave an opportunity for return to America 
to the late Director Sluyvesant, who had been summoned to 
Ilulland by the West India Company to answer charges of trea- 
son and cowardice before the States-General. With such a 
record as we have shown the West India Company had, in its 
mismanagement of New NetluMiand, it was not ditficult to ])rove 
that these (diarges were ridiculous on the part of such accusers, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIKEE CENTURIES. 65 

and Stuyvesant was fully exonerated by the States-General. He 
returned in 1667 by way of England, and on his passage did a 
last good turn for his conntiy by obtaining from the easy Charles 
the privilege of direct trade between Holland and its former 
dependenc}, three ships being allowed to sail thither annually 
for the space of seven years. Once more at home, Stuyvesant 
spent several peaceful years in the bosom of his family, develop- 
ing his extensive plantations, and died at the age of eighty years 
in February, 1672, being buried on his own estate. 

In October, 1661, or little over a month after the surrender, 
the inhabitants of the late New Amsterdam were called upon 
to take the oath of allegiance to the King of England. There was 
at first some objection, as it was claimed that in this there was 
a violation of the articles of surrender, which had stipulated to 
leave the people undisturbed in their rights and privileges, and 
here was a disturbance of a most radical nature in their relations 
to their mother country. But it was obvious that the surrender 
had, by their own act, already made this change in allegiance, 
and they could not be subjects of the crown in fact without also 
expressing their allegiance in explicit form. No one saw this 
more clearly than Stuyvesant himself, and he led the citizens in 
the act, followed by the two ministers of the Dutch congrega- 
tion, until soon all of the two hundred and fifty or more of land- 
holders and substantial citizens had complied with the demand. 

A more questionable proceeding was a decree of Nicolls that 
all those holding lands under titles from the previous Dutch 
colonial government, must renew them as issuing from the Duke 
of York before a certain date, under penalty of being forfeited 
otherwise. A fee was to be paid for the renewal of the title, and 
Nicolls needed the money that would be derived thence. There 
was considerable opposition to this decree, and it was with some 
justice claimed that here, indeed, was a violation of the Articles 
of Surrender. But Nicolls carried out the project in spite of the 
threatened rebellion. 

The opposition had been most determined on Long Island, and 



66 THE EMPIRE HTATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

these towns of riiiitjui or New England origin kept up tlieir 
reputation foi- tnrbnleiue and independence of spirit under man}- 
governors. Jvccognizing tlieir services in effecting the con- 
quest of New Netherland, Nicolls invited all the sixteen towns 
on the island to send two delegates each to a conference at 
Hempstead, to which Westchester also was asked to send two 
representatives, liefore this bod}^ of thirty-four good men and 
true, immensely flattered by this formal summons on the part of 
the lioyal Governor, Nicolls submitted a code of laws, known as 
the " Duke's Laws." These provided the establishment of higher 
and loA\'er courts in proper gradation: first and lowest, the 
"Town Court"; next in order, the "Court of Sessions," con- 
stituted b}' the justices of the peace of the various towns; and 
liighest of all, the " Court of Assize," composed of the governor, 
council, and the town magistrates. There was assigned a high 
sheriff for " Yorkshire," of wdiich these sixteen towns and the 
one of Westchester formed a part, with a deputy for each of the 
three ridings. 

The code of " Duke's Laws," besides, embraced a pretty exten- 
sive range of subjects: " It regulated the conduct of neighbors 
toward each other, providing punishments for angr^' or vitupera- 
tive terms. . . . The marking of hogs, brew ing, and burying, 
public worship. Sabbath keeping, divination, medical attend- 
ance, times for execution, marital relations, marking horses, 
selling liquor to Indians, and a thousand and one other things 
were jumbled together, and received impartial attention in these 
Duke's Tiaws." 

The bucolic delegates were so pleased at having been called 
together, and having these laws so ceremoniously submitted to 
them by Colonel Nicolls, that they seemed to have missed their 
real import, and thought onlj- of the honor put upon them. An 
a(hli(^ss dated March 1, 1665, and signed by each of the thirty- 
four delegates, was draAvn up, telling the Duke of York how 
much they appreciated the honor and how satisfied they were to 
be de])endent on his l\oyal niglmess, adding these fatuous 




MA Jim GEirjClRAL TPMn.TP SX.'HaT^XlGK. 




THE EMI'IRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 67 

words : " We do farther beseech your Eoyal Highness to accept 
of this address, as tlie first fruits in tliis general meeting, for a 
memorial and record against us, our heirs, and successors, when 
we, or any of them, shall fail in our duties."' This was reckoning 
a little without their host. 

On calmer examination, when they were home again among 
their level-headed constituents, they found that in these Duke's 
Laws there were no provisions whatever for either the expres- 
sion or the operation of the popular will. Officers of the towns 
were to be appointed at NeAV York by the governor, as they had 
been at New Amsterdam by the director. There seemed not 
much satisfaction in the change of names. The people found 
that Yorkshire, with its picturesque ridings, was not to be at 
all like the New England Confederacy. And so there was con- 
siderable excitement in the excitable Long Island towns, and 
things were made none too pleasant for the obsequious signers 
of the address to the Duke of York. 

So sharp was the criticism of them by their neighbors that the 
Court of Assize issued a decree threatening prosecution against 
those who spoke detractingly of the deputies who had signed the 
paper. The east end x)eople, hailing from across the Sound, 
were most recalcitrant. Southampton, Easthampton, and South- 
old refused to receive the officers appointed for their toAvns, and 
Avithheld their taxes. They clamored for their free town-meet- 
ings. John Underhill, the appointed dex^uty sheriff for the 
North Kiding, dechired that the people were slaves. Fines and 
imprisonment were inliicted in Brookhaven and Flushing. 

For an uncommonh^ long period after the occupation of New 
York City by its English rulers, tlie as^jects of affairs, so far as 
the municipal government was concerned, remained without a 
change. At the City Hall, on Coenties Slip, the chief direction 
of city business was still in the hands of two burgomasters, five 
schepens, and a schout. Tf one could have stood outside by the 
open windows of the " Burgermeestery " on the i)leasant days 
of the Indian summer of 1G(U, he would have heard the sturdy 



68 



THE EMriUK STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



tones of official Dutcli with all its gutteral asceudeuey. Nicolls 
Avas certainly considci-ale of the feelings of his recently subjected 
colonists in this particular. 

Not even when the term of the Dutch officers expired, on Feb- 
ruary 2, l()(»r), was the change to English forms or names effected. 
It was June, KIGo, when this was first done. Then a mayor took 
tlie plac(^ of the two burgomasters; Ave aldermen were ap- 
pointed in the place of the five schepens, and a sheriff was sub- 
stituted for the sellout. And Nicolls was happy in his choice 
of mayor. The first Mayor of New York was Thomas Willett, 




CANAL ON BROAD STREET, NEW YORK, IN 165G. 

an Englishman, indeed. But he had come to Plymouth with the 
rilgrims from Leyden, in Holland, and for at least twenty-three 
years he had been a resident among the Hollanders on Man- 
hattan Island, so that he Avas heartil}- one Avith them, and thor- 
oughh^ couA-ersant Avith their beloved mother-tongue. The city 
had attained a population of about fifteen hundred souls, and 
was still confined to the territory south of the present Wall 
Street. For several decades after the conquest that street Avas 
far up-toAvn. 

Charles II. had not only done injustice to the Dutch in his 
liberal grant of Ann rican territory to his brother an<l heir, the 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THUEE CENTURIES. 69 

Dnke of A^)rk, he Lad quietly granted away tlie land of his own 
colonists. The terms of the donation included a large portion 
of Connecticut, in fact, more than half, as the boundary line of 
James's property was extended to the Connecticut River, and 
included all of I.ong Island. By the " Convention of Hartford " 
of 1G50, the dispute between Stuyvesant and the English as to 
the Long Island towns had been settled by drawing a line along 
the east boundary of Oyster Bay, conceding all east of that to 
Connecticut. Nicolls fortunately took the part of the latter 
colony, and although he could not restore her Long Island de- 
pendencies, the Puke consented to limit his claims to her terri- 
tory on the mainland by a line drawn twenty miles east of the 
Hudson River. 

Another territorial decision of imp(n'tance was one separating 
New Jersey from New York. New Netherland had at one time 
extended (on paper, of course) from the Connecticut River to 
the Delaware. Following the example of his royal brother, 
Charles, in giving away what was not his, James, even in June, 
1664, before New Netherland had been taken, gave away the part 
now known as New Jersey to two court favorites. Sir George 
Carteret and Lord Berkeley. Of a sudden, Philip Carteret, as 
cousin of Sir George, appeared at New York, presenting a letter 
from James to Nicolls, directing him to separate New Jersey 
from New York, and transfer the government to the bearer of 
the letter. The incident is important only as marking the origin 
of the distinction betAveen the two provinces, and the i)rogTess 
toward the definite delimitation of what we now know as the 
Empire State. 

A glance toward a portion of the State far distant from the 
parts we have just been considering, and which claim such pre- 
ponderating attention because of their earlier settlement, will 
bring to mind some interesting transactions on the soil of New 
York on the part of another European nation. The French, who 
were the first to set foot in our State, could not refrain from 
making freciuont attempts to regain that important friendship 



70 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

of the Iroquois which their pioneer, Champlain, had unwittiuoly 
forfeited. We have seen that Father Joques went as an envoy 
among them in 164(), and then retnrued as a missionary, only 
to be massacred. That martjrdf)m was only seemingly fruitless. 
What Father Joques and Bressani and others had told of these 
Indians, while it iiideed appalled priests and laynnen alike, did 
at least interest them and acquaint them quite fully with their 
manners and surroundings. 

On the other hand, the goodness and gentleness and mys- 
terious self-sacrifice of the missionaries they had caught and 
tortured and massacred, had left an impression upon the wild 
men. So, strangely enough, a request came to the Canadian 
authorities from the Onondaga nation, among whom Joques had 
sought to begin his work, that a Jesuit father might be sent to 
live among them. Simon Le Moyne promptly returned with the 
deputation convening the request. He arrived in their country 
in Jul}^, 1653, and incidentally he soon made known to his coun- 
trymen the existence of the salt springs in Onondaga County. A 
few months later, with an amusing childish jealousy that a 
neighboring nation had what they had not, the Mohawks also 
asked for a missionary, and were given a share in Le Moyne's 
])ast()ral care. A few more missionaries came in 1655, and then 
in 1656 the French gave evidence of the real reason why they 
encouraged the religious enterprises. 

A company of fifty Frenchmen, under the lead of one Dupuys, 
accompanied l^^ather Mercier, in July of that year, carrying five 
pieces of cannon, which they placed Avithin a redoubt built on an 
eminence overlooking the salt lake. But the occupation did 
not last long. The Five Nations Avere not to be hoodwinked in 
this way. Plots to exterminate the garrison of the fort were 
formed, and came to the commander's ears through friendly 
converts. He did not await their execution; at a feast Avhich he 
gave the Onondagas, the liberal flow of liquor re<lu('ed the braves 
to a helpless condition, and when revelry w^as at its highest the 
Frenchmen sallied forth and hurried away from the perilous 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THIIEE CENTURIES. 71 

spot, braving a journey in canoes among icefloes on lakes and 
rivers in their eagerness to retrace tlieir all too forward steps. 
The mission, as well as the fort, were thus abandoned, for it was 
not safe for even priests to remain behind. 

In 1661 Le Moyne ventured to start the mission once more, but 
the Indians were now much less impressionable, and although 
they did him no bodily harm, he found it a hopeless task and gave 
it up the following year. Now the French cast aside the mask of 
friendship. In 1665 the King, in his instructions to the Governor 
of Canada, declared that the Five Nations were " perpetual and 
irreconcilible enemies, against whom war was to be waged to 
their very firesides, in order to exterminate them." A fort was 
built at the mouth of the Sorel River, another at its rapids, a 
third near Lake Cliamplain, a fourth on an island in the lake. 
Four of the Five Nations weakened and were ready to treat 
w^ith the French, but the Mohawks remained firm. 

In 1666 General Courcelles made an incursion Avitli five hun- 
dred men into the JMohawk country, and approached almost to 
Schenectady. But the Mohawks drew him into an ambuscade, 
and several Frenchmen were killed. Curiousl}^ enough, Cour- 
celles, when he reached the Dutch settlement at Schenectady, 
was kindly cared for and refreshed; for although he had come to 
make war on their friends and allies, the ^Mohawks, yet there 
could not but be a tie of common humanity to bind them together 
in the presence of the cruel savages. When Nicolls heard of the 
incursion, he sent a serious remonstrance to the Governor of 
Canada, who replied Avith ju'ofuse apologies, saying he knew not 
the English were now in possession there. But that knowledge 
made no difference in his attitude the year after. A larger force 
than before invaded the Mohawk country again, and Nicolls, 
unable to send an army to their support, fortified them by the 
assurance that they were his allies and were fighting the battles 
of theEnglishKing in resisting the invasion. In 1667 Nicolls went 
up to Albany in person, and made the ^Mohawks and their con- 
federates understand that he relied upon them to act as a barrier 



72 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



agaiijst tlie French along the whole line of their " Long House." 
The life at a frontier post in the Avilderness was losing its at- 
tractions for Governor Nicolls. He had served his master well; 
he had been firm in carrying out the arbitrary' measures con- 
tained in his instructions, j^et he had been considerate and kind 
where he could. He asked to be relieved, and in 1668 he returned 
to the comforts and pleasures of court life. But in 1672 he was 
with the fleet fighting the Dutch again, and he met his death in 
the battle of Solesbay. He had never married, and no descend- 
ants represent him to-day. 

The next governor under the English rule was Francis Love- 
lace. Another governor of that name came to New York in the 
nv\t century, and it has been variously stated that Lord Love- 
lace was the nephew or grandson of 
Francis. But as Francis Lovelace, like his 
predecessor, Avas a bachelor, the latter 
theory will have to be given up. There 
was a liancelot Lovelace in the days of 
Henry VI., to which both these gov- 
ernors could trace their pedigree. Lancelot 
had tAvo sons who had descendants, Will- 
iam and John. From William descended 
Governor Francis Lovelace; from John, Governor Lord Lovelace. 
An elder brother of Francis was the poet Bichard Lovelace, made 
famous by the song containing the lines : 

" I could not love thee, dear, so much, 
Loved I not honor more." 

Two younger brothers, Thomas and Dudley, accompanied him 
to America. 

The new governor A\as not a stranger to the New World. It 
is said that in 1652 he had procured a pass from Cromwell, with 
which he had traveled through the English townships on Long 
Island, and had thence gone to Virginia, but with what object 
it does not appear. He could not have been anything but a 
Boyalist during the Civil War, or he would not now have ob- 




SEAL OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 73 

tained a distinguished position from tlie Dnke of York. Before 
lie entered upon his duties, an opportunity was given him to 
become still more widel^^ acquainted with the territory under 
his command. Nicolls had been asked to remain at his post till 
the arrival of his successor, and the two sailed together up the 
Hudson. They stopped at Esopus and made an excursion into 
the country back of the river, which bore fruit later in the found- 
ing of a new town in that vicinity, as we shall see. At Albany 
the two dignitaries left their ship, or shallop, and rode on horse- 
back into Connecticut, to Hartford and New Haven, calling on 
Governor John Winthrop. Crossing the Sound, a second visit 
was made by Lovelace to Long Island, taking in now also the 
portion formerly a part of New Netherland. 

The capital of the province was not yet a town of great im- 
portance. The population had not greatly increased during the 
term of Nicolls, and commerce certainly had not yet begun to 
utilize the splendid opportunities that lay awaiting its use. In 
that great harbor a vessel was a rare sight. Once in a while came 
one of the three Dutch ships, privileged to trade here; but they 
were never here at one time, and of English vessels there were 
seen not more. If nine or ten sloops or schooners, plying between 
New York or Boston, or the Southern colonies, or the West 
Indies, were in port at once, it was a sight to be noted in letters 
or diaries. Yet Lovelace managed to derive pleasure from the 
meager circle of inhabitants. He was of a genial and sociable 
nature, a person of polite culture, with some poetic taste and 
ability. In mingling with the limited society of the town to 
Avliich families of Dutch, French, and English extraction con- 
tributed about equal shares, he was astonished to find, as he 
wrote to King Charles in 16G8, that " some of these people have 
the breeding of courts,, and I can not conceive how such is ac- 
quired." 

This congenial company he gathered into a club of ten French 
and Dutch and six English families, which met twice a week 
during the winter of 1668-1C69. He gratified the Dutch element 



74 THE EMriRK STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

b3' making and eontinninii' as mayor during three terms Cor- 
nelius Steenwyk, who had come to New Amsterdam from Haar- 
lem, in Holland, in lGo2. The mention of this Haarlem leads 
the thought to its namesake on Manhattan Island, and thus to 
an illustration of the vast concerns which in these early days 
came before the honorable and exalted council of the province. 
" It seems almost ludicrous to read," justly observes one his- 
torian, " how, on the 22d of February, 16G9, Governor Lovelace 
and his council, with others of the bench at New York, held a 
court at Harlem to consider first and principally ' the laying out 
of a wagon road, which hath heretofore been ordered, but never 
as yet was prosecuted to eifect, though very necessary to the 
mutual commerce with one another,' of New York and Harlem." 

The slowly " prosecuted " road to Harlem was finished the 
latter part of 1672, and then Lovelace was ready with a scheme 
which has made his name worthy to be remembered above many 
a Governor of our State. This Avas the establishment of a postal 
route and service between New Y(n'k and Boston. He wrote to 
Governor Wiuthrop, at Hartford, explaining his plan and the ad- 
vantages thereof for all concerned, requesting his cooperation 
to the extent that he would " discourse with some of the most 
able Avoodmen to make out the best and most facile wny for a 
post, which, in process of time, would be the king's best high- 
way; as likewise passages and accommodation at rivers, fords, 
and other necessary places." When such facilities had been pro- 
cured all ahmg the route, to an extent that made practicable a 
horseback journey, it was announced that a monthly mail would 
start for Boston on January 1, 1673. 

During the month letters might be left at the office of the Sec- 
retary of the Province at the fort, who carefully deposited them 
in a box, of which he held the key. On the api)ointed day the 
postman, " active, stout, and indefatigable," as he is described, 
and " sworn to fidelity," mounted his steady but not swift steed 
and rode away, his saddle-bags filled with the monthly accumu- 
lation of the secretary's box. The road to Harlem stood him in 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 75 

good stead for six miles on the start; but lie could not have had 
a pleasant or altogether safe ride beyond the Harlem River and 
on to Hartford. He here might change horses and be sent on the 
remainder of his route by the authorities there, fain to follow 
Indian trails, and reduced in many places to blazing his way 
through the forest. On his return the letters he brought were 
laid upon the tabh' of some coffee-house or tavern, and handed 
to the parties addressed on the payment of the required postage 
charges. 

The liberty-loving towns on Long Island naturally tried 
whether they could make more of the easy Lovelace than of the 
strenuous Nicolls in the recovery of their sui)pressed privileges. 
In November, 16G9, eight towns (including East and West 
Chester on the mainland) took advantage of the annual meet- 
ing of the Court of Assize to present a list of grievances. In 
addition to this presentation of the liberties of Englishmen, of 
which they had been deprived, they clamored for the creation 
(»f a body of deputies chosen annually by the freeholders of every 
town and parish. It was urged that the promise of the institu- 
tion of such popular assembly had been given them by Nicolls. 
This was denied, and no assembly was created. In spite of this 
Lovelace imposed taxes for the repair of the fort and the main- 
tenance of the governnumt. Southold, S(»utiiami)ton, and East- 
hampton again led in the revolt against this injustice. The^^ 
would pay taxes on condition that they might enjoy the privi- 
leges of the New England colonies. They <li<l not get the 
privileges; but neither did the governor get his taxes. 

Staten Island has not hitherto emerged to any great extent 
from its prehistoric state. One or two adventurers tried to exi)loit 
it as a Patroonship in the days of the Dutch Director, and Kieft 
contrived to commit an outrage against the Indians on it, which 
was one of the early causes of the wars. Lovelace, in 1G70, pur- 
chased the entire island from the Indian proprietors. A rather 
choice part of it he bought back from his royal master as a farm 
for himself, which figured later as a considerable item in the list 




ADRIAEN VAN DEK DONCK's MAP, 1656. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 77 

of debts Avliicli he owed to James. This farm was where the 
quarantine «^roimds are now (although not used for quarantine 
purposes any more). There was a water-mill upon it, and it was 
comfortably stocked with sheep and cattle. 

His oA'e for advantageous s^jots for farms or plantations, aided 
in the development of another jjortion of the province. We have 
told of his trip up to Albany and his stopping at Esoj)US. Back 
from the river he saw tlie tract of land now known as the town of 
Hui'ley. This name, given by Lovelace, has served to connect 
him with the later governor in closer family relationship than 
the facts warrant. The family in the line from the John Lovelace 
of the times of the Henrys, became Barons Hurley of Berkshire, 
under Charles I., but Francis Lovelace's branch of the family 
had no part in this patrimony. The name may have been selected 
merely as a comjjliment to the branch which had attained the 
peerage. He made an attempt to settle a large number of emi- 
grants from Scotland on this territory, but it failed through the 
restrictions upon navigation to the colonies. 

France still kept its eye on New York, and its statesmen at one 
time entertained the idea of getting the cession of all that had 
once been New Netherland from England and Holland. This 
peaceful project was substituted in the minds of the aggressive 
and able governors of Canada by a more drastic measure. It 
seemed i)racticable to them to organize an expedition to seize 
Fort Orange, and with this as a base of supplies to go on and 
conquer Manhattan Island and its well-populated surround- 
ings. In 1671 this scheme appeared to be actually in process of 
execution. An expedition, under Governor Courcelles, passed 
up the St. Lawrence to attack the Five Nations. Lovelace fully 
expected that a descent would be made on New York, and great 
alarm was felt. But the danger passed away, and no enemies 
approached from this quarter. 

Lovelace was destined to experience a more serious attack, 
liowever, from another quarter, and a quite different nationality. 
There was again war between England and Holland. Charles 



78 THE EMPIRE STATE l>i TIIKEE CENTURIES. 

II. bad basely consented to I'all in witb Louis XIV. and belp bini 
crush forever the brave Eepublic wbicb was an eyesore to 
despots. It A\as a poor return for liospitalit}, safet}', and even 
tiiiancial support enjoyed by Charles when a fugitive from his 
own country, to deliberately rob the Dutch people of their pos- 
sessions in North America in 1GG4:. It was a still baser ingrati- 
tude to join in a scheme for their deliberate ruin in 1072. But it 
was not easy to crush a liberty-loving peo^jle. Louis's armies 
crossed the borders of Holland and penetrated to within a few 
miles of Amsterdam and The Hague. Then the nation turned at 
bay. Louis was compelled to retire, and upon the seas De Iluyter 
swept the enemies of his couutiy from her shores. 

He was enabled to do more than that: he sent fleets hither 
and thither to distant points to retaliate on France and England, 
and a squadron under Admiral Evertsen was dispatched to cross 
(he Atlantic to ravage the shores of Virginia. In a New York 
library to-day are the original secret instructions which were 
given to Evertsen by Ue Euyter. No. 1, dated November, 1672, 
directed the taking of the Island of St. Helena. This was to be 
done before June 1, 1673, Avhen the squadron was to leave St. 
Helena, and No. 2 to be opened when again upon the high seas. 
Articles 1 to 5 order in detail how to proceed with regard to 
Mrginia. Article 6 orders Evertsen to recapture New Nether- 
land if he could, otherwise to devastate the coast. The province 
is not mentioned by name, but a cipher-key in another paper 
among these interesting original documents explains that " 163 " 
in Article 6 means New Netherland. 

As a result of these orders, promptly carried out, Admiral 
Evertsen entered the Upper Bay of New York on July 29, 1673, 
convoying no less than sixteen prizes with his squadron of seven 
vessels. As Lovelace afterward wrote, a descent was made on 
his convenient farm on Staten Island, and the foe " breakfasted " 
on his beeves and sheep. The governor himself was away from 
town, seeing to some of the details of his postal route, and Cap- 
tain James Manning was in command at the fort. He sent to 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 79 

the fleet iuquiriiii^ \\liat they had come for. Evertseu replied 
that they had come for their own, aud that they would have it, 
too, demanding the immediate surrender of the fort, town, and 
province. Manning asked for thirty-six honi-s in which to de- 
liberate. Evertsen gave him about thirty-six minutes, at the end 
of which he was off the IJattery ready to pour broadsides from 
liis ships into Fort James. Manning fired one shot, and it was 
repaid with interest. 

But meantime a force of four hundred sailors and marines, 
under Captain Colve, had lauded at the foot of Rector Street. 
It was but a short run up the grassy slope to Broadway at that 
time, and here, turning to the right, they marched down toward 
the Bowling Green. At the turn of the hill an officer with a flag 
of truce met the attacking party, and the place capitulated. As 
Manning afterward showed, when he w^as tried for treason and 
cowardice, there were but four sponges and rammers; only six 
guns were available, for lack of platforms and carriages. It was 
impossible to withstand a squadron of invincible Dutch sailors 
with such inadequate means of defense. And so the flag of the 
Republic w\as run up over the fort once more, and the Dutch had 
their own again. It was a suflicient compensation for the humil- 
iating experience of nine years ago. 

A government for tlie recaptured province was hastily ar- 
ranged on board of Admiral Evertsen's flagship, the " Swanen- 
burgh." Captain Anthony Colve was made governor. He at 
once restored the form of a Dutch municipality. Three burgo- 
masters took the place of the one mayor, and schepens and 
schout once more reigned at tlie City Ilall. Military considera- 
tions predominated oxov every other, and in the interests of de- 
fense superfluous buildings were cleared away from around the 
fort to give free range to the guns; a Lutheran church being 
among the things condemned. Colve acted with a hand more 
free than his sohlierly predecessor, Stuyvesant, for New Nether- 
land was taken by the National forces and was the nation's 
property now, and net that of a trading company. New York 



80 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 




THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 81 

was named New Orange, and, as the sailor-conquerors pene- 
trated into the interior, Esoi^us had its name changed to 
" Swanenburg," in lionor of the Admiral's flagship, and Albany 
became Willemstadt, after Prince William Henry of Orange, 
who had been made Stadholder of the Republic in 1G72, in the 
ver}' hour of the crisis, and whose firm patriotism had led his 
countrymen back to safet}^ and freedom. 

Alarm spread among the neighboring English colonies, for 
they knew not how far the Dutch fleet might be encouraged to 
go on by its success in New York. But the admiral remained 
content with the recovery of the ancient colony of the father- 
land, and soon took his squadron and his prizes back to Ilolland, 
leaving Colve in supreme command. Then some of liis English 
neighbors prepared to dispute his possession, and Connecticut 
made some warlike demonstration. But Colve had been trained 
in an excellent school, and was so evidently qualifled to carry on 
war with success, that Connecticut prudently quieted down. 
The Long Island towns likewise found that Colve had botli tlie 
mind and the power to enforce obedience. 

If the patriotic hearts of the Dutch inhabitants had be(m grat- 
ified at the turn things had taken (it is a thousand pities that 
sturdy old Director Stuyvesant had died only the year before), 
their pride and jo}^ at the triumx^h of their beloved K('i)ublic 
was to be of short duration. The English people were ashamed 
of the war against Holland, if their king was not, and they 
compelled him to break off his unholy alliance (bought with 
mercenary gold) with Louis XIV. A separate peace with the 
Dutch was effected at Westminster in 1074, by the terms of whicli 
all conquered territories on either side were to be restored. Thus 
New Netherland was again to become New York, and it was 
stipulated that the formal transfer be made in November of the 
same year. In anticipation of this event, lest it might be claimed 
that the temporary loss had invalidated the Duke of York's title 
to the province, the king reaffirmed the grant by issuing a new 
patent in June, 1674. 



82 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

There could be uo question of reappointing the discredited 
Lovelace, who had been awaj from liis post with a threat of 
attack in the air, and utterly unprepared for resisting it, even 
if he had been, on liand. The duke, therefore, appointed a new 
governor, Edmund Andros, who arrived at New York with two 
frigates and anchored inside the Narrows on October 22. 
He received a delegation of Dutch citizens on board his ship, who 
asked and received guarantees from him that their rights and 
privileges should not suffer from the transfer of authority. On 
No\ ember !), (Jovernor Colve met the burgomasters, schepens, 
and sellout at the City Hall, and formally discharged them of 
their oath to the l»rince of Orange. On the next day, November 
10, 1G74 (about lifteen months after the recapture), Colve, with 
much ceremony, handed over the command of the province and 
the keys of its ca])ital city to Governor Andros. 

To emphasize the cordiality of the transfer, the Dutch captain 
presented his English successor with his coach and three horses, 
an incident which is duly and fondly related by all the historians, 
Colve returned to Holland, and is heard of in history no more. 
Admiral Evertsen distinguished himself in the service of his 
country in subsequent years, and it was he whose ships convoyed 
Prince William of Orange when he went to England in 1688 on 
the expedition which resulted in the overthrow of James II, and 
the elevation of himself and Queen Mary to the throne of Eng- 
land. 

Edmund Andros was born in London in 1637, and had married 
Iho daughter of an English baronet. His father was Bailiff' of 
the Island of Ouernsey, and in the same year of his appointment 
as Governor of New York, he was permitted to succeed to the 
office of bailiff' on his father's deceavse. He w^as also a major in 
His Majesty's troops, and had commanded the forces in the Island 
of Barbadoes in 1672. He was peculiarly fitted for his present 
preferment by his linguistic abilities. He spoke Erench fluently, 
but what was not so common among English gentlemen, he was 
equally conversant witli the Dutch language. This was because, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 83 

while quite a youth, he had been made gentlemau-in-ordinary to 
Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I., aud wife of the unfortu- 
nate King of Bohemia, whose roj^alty was mainly supported by 
generous Dutch guilders during the years of his refuge in Hol- 
land, when driven from his kingdom and refused protection by his 
vojal father-in-law of England. It is obvious that his acquaint- 
ance with the Dutch vernacular must have endeared him, espe- 
cially to his neighbors in the capital. 

Perhaps it was this kindly reciprocal feeling which made 
Andros take a peculiar interest in the welfare and improvement 
of the little city. His name stands conspicuous above that of all 
other governors of the province, in the particular care he be- 
stoAved in providing for the comfort, health, and prosperity of 
New York, instituting measures of immediate as well as lasting 
benefit. He gratified the majority of the townspeople by ap- 
pointing as mayors the Dutch citizens, Nicholas De Meyer aud 
Cornelius Steenwyck. Finding that the records of the town were 
kept at the private house of the clerk or secretary, Nicholas 
Bayard, Andros at once ordered that they be removed to safer 
quarters in the City Hall. 

The sanitation of cities in those days was very slightly at- 
tended to, if at all, and for many a decade thereafter, especially 
as population became larger in the next century, fevers and 
plagues repeatedly visited the town on Manhattan Island. The 
governor compelled the denizens to keep the fronts of their own 
houses aud yards clean, and appointed inspectors to see that it 
was done, aud that j)ublic cartmen removed the rubbish heaped 
up by the householders. Markets were established at convenient 
points under his supervision, and everything to facilitate traffic 
there. The canal in Broad Street, a feeble imitation of condi- 
tions in old Amsterdam, and altogether too malodorous, was 
ordered filled up in 1(376. The citizens were banded into five 
companies of militia, each with its captain, and Nicholas Bayard 
as their colonel. 

A fine wharf was constructed, stretching in semi-circular form 



84 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



from the southern point of the island to a point opx)osite the 
City Hall, affording a roomy basin for the mooring of vessels, 
large and small, undisturbed b^' the turbulent tides and waves 
rushing past just outside. At the expense, and to the disgust of 
the surrounding communities on Long Island and in New Jerse}', 
Andros established for New York City the '' Bolting Monopoly,'' 
which lasted for seventeen years, caused three hundred houses 
to be built to accommodate the increasing population, and ran 
up the number of vessels engaged in New York's carrying trade 
from three to sixty annually. 

Andros, however, with all his good feeling toward the people 

under his rule, had to 
carry out the same meas- 
ure which aroused such 
op])ositi()n to Governor 
NicolLs. The c i r c u m- 
stances of the two gov- 
ernors were somewhat 
similar, in that the admin- 
istration of each com- 
menced with a transfer of 
allegiance from one sov- 
ereign nation to another. 

THE WATER GATE, FOOT OF PRESENT WALL Qn March 13, 1G75, the pCO- 
STREET, NEW YORK, ABOUT 16G0. 

pie of the city and prov- 
ince were ord(^red to appear before the proper officials and take 
the oath of fidelity to the king. The chief citizens objected, 
but without good ground, for Colve had made them swear 
l)erfectly plain Dutch oaths, abjuring the king and de- 
voting life and goods to the service of the States-General and 
the Prince of Orange. The municipal officers had been dis- 
charged of these oaths by the retiring governor, but that was 
only in their capacity as such. They, with the whole body of 
citizens, were as yet bound by the previous i^ledge, unless it 
were neutrnlized bv the oath now demanded of them. 




THE EMPUfE STxVTE IxN THREE CENTURIES. 85 

Nevertheless, about eight promiueiit men, who had exercised 
such fimctious as burgomasters and schepeus, Cornelius Steeu- 
wyck among them, signed a petition asking to be exempted from 
the oath, and requesting to be permitted to dispose of their 
property and leave the colony, in case the governor could not 
grant them the exemption. Andros regarded this attitude as 
one smacking of sedition or treason, and promptly committed all 
the eight to prison. The first man to come to his senses was 
ex-Burgomaster Johannes De Peyster, who took the oath before 
the trial came on; the other seven, though convicted, were re- 
leased on bail, but after a while followed the example of their 
fellow citizens. 

The governor was not so lenient with a more respectable show 
of opposition on Long Island. Not quite a week after the prov- 
ince had been turned over to him by Colve, on November 16, 1674, 
Andros received a paper from John Burroughs, the town clerk of 
Newtown. It was a reply to his order reinstating the town 
officers on the English plan, and in it the grievances complained 
of under Nicolls were recounted in quite unmistakable terms. 
Andros sent back to know whether the people backed their clerk, 
or whether he alone was responsible for the sentiments. The 
town's vote on that query was so non-committal that the governor 
assumed that Burroughs was the responsible party. 

He was, therefore, brought to New York, cast into jtrison 
from Friday to Monday, and condemned to be fastened to the 
whipping-post for an hour, although he was spared the indignity 
of a whipping. It only had the effect of making the chronic 
turbulence of Long Island more troublesome. Meetings were 
called in every township at the eastern end of the island, and the 
people voted unanimously that they owed no allegiance to New 
York, that former conventions recognized by England had 
assigned them as a part of Connecticut, and that their allegiance 
belonged there. This did not help them much, however, for 
Andros had been instructed to reassert the old claim to all the 
country west of the Connecticut, so that the latter colony had 



SQ THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIKEE CENTURIES. 

its bauds full tliwartiiiij; designs on its main teiTitor3\ In the 
course of the dispute Andres did not hesitate to sail with an 
aimed force against the sister colony, intending to annex the 
Avhole of it to his own province. 

When he landed at Saybrook he found the fort there occupied 
by two companies of Connecticut militia, who had come there 
to put down the Indians. The English flag was flying from the 
walls, and Andros dared not open fire. Thus the attempt against 
Connecticut failed, but it could not retain its jurisdiction over 
the Long Island towns. Somewhat in contradiction of this re- 
pressive attitude of Andros is the contention of some authoritlc^s 
that Andros was in favor of granting the people of the province 
poijular representation. A petition to be allowed to choose depu- 
ties from the towns to sit in an Assembly, to whom the making 
of laws should be granted conjointly with the council appointed 
by the king, had been sent to His Majesty, addressed to him 
through the Duke of York. The royal brothers had no liking for 
such a body, and declined it with promptness and fervor. Yet 
it is claimed by some, in opposition to many, whose conclusions 
are more in accord with Andros's treatment of John Burroughs, 
that Andros actually advised the king to grant this assembly. 
It was not to be yet, but it was coming, and was due soon. 

Nine days aftf^r Andros had taken over the government of 
the province at New York, or on November 19, 1674, there was 
a transfer of authority from Dutch to English officers at Albany, 
which regained its in^evious name. The old town enjoys the 
ha]>]>in('ss of not having many "annals" at that time to invite 
the pen of the historian. It is a pity, therefore, that it must 
emerge from this innocuous oblivion by reason of religious dis- 
putes having a flavor of persecution. In this connection there 
comes to the foreground a curious personality, the Rev. Nicholas 
van Rensselaer. His name indicates a close connection with the 
Patroon family, he being the great-grandson of the first Kiliaen. 
He studied for the ministry and was ordained by the Classis of 
Amsterdam. 




miCMAJBiB M@If^®®lffllIEro 



.^^^^r^^C 





THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 87 

During the exile of Charles II. lie spent some time at the house 
of the van Rensselaer family in Amsterdam, and thus he be- 
came intimate with the young divine. The latter must have 
been something of a dreamer, and claimed he possessed the 
power of foretelling the future. Charles asked him whether he 
could forecast his fortunes, and the Eev. Nicholas promptly 
did so, and assured him he would ere long be called to occupy 
his throne. It was natural that after the event the king felt in- 
clined to favor the prophet, and after the Restoration the Dutch 
domine was made Chaplain of St. Margaret's, Westminster. In 
1074 he felt inclined to go to America and settle near or on his 
father's estates, and the king or the duke gave him a letter to 
Andros, asking him to procure him a living in New York. 
Andros, therefore, recommended to the authorities of Albany 
that he be made a pastor in the Dutch church of Albany, as 
colleague to the one already there, Domine Gideon Sehaats. 

He was so accepted, but much to the disgust of the latter. He 
called in question his right to such position as an Episcopal 
clergyman, and he was forbidden to administer the communion 
or to baptize children. The more moderate lay officers of the 
church pointed out, however, that van Rensselaer was a Dutch 
domine before he became an English priest, Avhereby his ordi- 
nation was made valid. A year or two later, the civil authorities 
imprisoned van Rensselaer for some '' dubious words " he had 
uttered in the pulpit; but it was dangerous to touch the king's 
favorite, and the magistrates of Albany barely escaped imprison- 
ment themselves on Andres's part for the act, which surely was 
of somewhat doubtful propriety in a free land in the case of any 
preacher. These incidents seem of slight importance, except as 
giving a glimpse of life in the primitive days of colonial exist- 
ence. 

There was more serious business for Governor Andros up at 
Albany with the Indians of the Five Nations. They had indeed 
remained true to their traditional hatred of the French, in spite 
of the sojourn of Jesuit missionaries among them; and yet it 



88 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



seoiued i^ood ]t()licY to stiffen their opposition by a more decided 
show of friendship bv tlio English succeeding to the position of 
the Dutch. Leaving his comparatively comfortable and civilized 
quarters at New York, Andros undertook a trip up the Hudson, 
stopping at Eso])us on the way. From Albany he went to Sche- 
nectady, and then started boldly into the untracked wilderness, 
penetrating into it a distance of a hundred miles from Schenec- 
tady, as far as Utica, and even to the sources of the Mohawk 
TJiver. 

It must have been an experience never to be forgotten. No 
wonder the People of the League were gratified. A general 
council of all the tribes was called, for it was near the center 

of their confederacy. 
All the pomp and 
ceremoniousuess o f 
the Indian nature 
was appealed to by so 
august an occasion. 
The sachems of the 
General Council sat 
about in a circle, the 
council-fire being lit 
in the midst. The 
g r e a t calumet of 
peace, which was in 
charge of the Senecas, was brought forth, and being lit at the 
sacrod fire, it was handed first to the governor, the supreme 
sachem of the AA'hite men, and then a whiff of it was taken by 
each of the chief sachems of the League. 

Andros then rose and thanked the Five Nations for their faith 
and loyalty in driving aw^ay from among them the French, who 
had come in the wake of the missionaries to occupy their country. 
This opened the flood gates of Indian talk, and for several days 
conferences were held to accommodate the endless succession 
of braves who could also palaver. The Five Nations renewed 




THE WEST INDIA COMPANY'S HOUSE ON THE 
RAPENBURG, AMSTERDAM. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 89 

their vows of allegiance, standiiii> upon the terms of the treaty 
made at Tawasentha, and assuring the English that they re- 
garded them as having come into the place of the Dutch in that 
compact. 

A significant incident of this conference was the formal be- 
stowal upon Andros of the title of " Corlaer." In this way did 
these humble Indian friends revere the memory of a man who 
had always been to them the model of integrity and unshaken 
truth; Avho had often remonstrated with them for their cruelties, 
and fearlessly told them of wrong done; but who had alwaj^s 
manifested a true interest for their welfare, while utilizing them 
in the pursuit of a profitable trade. Seven years before, in 1667, 
Arendt Van Corlaer had been drowned in Lake Champlain on 
his way to visit, by invitation, the Governor of Canada on some 
business relating to the Indians. The lake Avas called Corlaer 
by the ]Moliawks ever since. 

To give more peruianent effect to the alliance with the Five 
Nations thus happily made, Gov(n']ior Andros instituted a new 
measure on his return to Albany. He organized a " Board of 
Commissioners of Indian Affairs." As secretary of this board 
he appointed liobert Livingston, town clerk of Albany. This 
name at once arrests our attention, ami riMjuires us to pause, 
because it introduces us to a man who founded a family whose 
members were prominently identified with the progress of the 
State of New^ York throughout the colonial period, and far into 
the days of Statehood. 

Robert Livingston had come to America in 1674, and was the 
son of the Rev. John Livingston, who was for nine years 
(1663-1672) the pastor of the Scotch church in the Jacobs Straat, 
at Rotterdam, Holland, where he also married a Dutch lady. 
Robert, therefore, must have been thoroughly conversant with 
the Dutch vernacular. He had studied surveying, and was 
versed in both Dutch and English law. It did not take him long- 
to become a man of mark in the new country. Land was easily 
obtained, and with such qualities and knowledge as he possessed 



I 



90 THE JJAil'lUl': STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

he could soon make it protitable, and lie became a man of sub- 
stance in tlie colony of IJensselaerwyck. The next step was 
ottice-holdinii-, and none so well fitted to be clerk of the town of 
Albany as he. He, too, was the man to be pointed out to Andros 
for secretary of his new board, as he had soon followed up Cor- 
laer's policy of making friends with the ludians, and understood 
how to deal with them. 

At this time he was still unmarried; but a fcAV years later he 
look unto himself as wife the widow of Domine van Rensselaer. 
And here again we come into contact with a race of New York 
men, to whom the colony and State have been nuicli indebted for 
lives of noblest honor and most far-reaching usefulness to the 
connuunity. The Rev. Nicholas van Rensselaer, after his arrival 
in this country, had married Alida Schuyler, the daughter of 
Philip Pietersen Schu^der, Avho was the founder of the Schuyler 
family, none the less noted in the annals of their State than the 
Livingstons. The original Schuyler had emigrated to America 
at the request of Patroon van Rensselaer. His native province 
Avas that of Gelderland. After his settlement in the '' Colonie," 
he married the daughter of Commissary Van Schlechtenhorst, 
who had succeeded Van Corlaer in the management of the 
Patroonship. 

Thus, by the development of the resources of the land, and the 
bringing thither of men of brain and stamina, shrcAvd and braA^e 
and honorable, fit to be patriarchs and founders of " houses '' 
of a better nobility than European aristocracies can boast, the 
preparations Avere made for the advance of New York among 
her sister colonies, till she should stand in their midst Avith the 
crown of Empire readily yielded to her as her due. The poet 
well has said. 

" 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accnnnilates, and men decay." 

But it was the destiny of New York that her wealth should accu- 
mulate because of the fine quality of the men that Avere to lead 
her in the race to industrial and civil supremacy. 

The most annoying matter that came up to sprinkle the thorns 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES, 91 

upon Governor Aiidios's path, were the complications growing 
out of the severance of New Jersey from New York. The duke, 
his master, had indeed granted that colony to his two favorites, 
as Ave saw, and had withdrawn its territory, altliongh formerly 
a j)art of New Netherland, from the jurisdiction of Governor 
Nicolls. But Avhen it came to exercising certain natural rights 
and ])rivileges belonging to a separate and independent pro- 
prietorship and colonial autonomy, which interfered with James 
Stuart's revenues, he very unreasonably put obstacles in the 
way of that exercise. 

Governor Philip Carteret established Elizabeth as a port of 
entry for ships from abroad. The duke ordered Andros to seize 
all vessels that paid duties there. He was told that His IJoyal 
Highness was not at all inclined to let go any part of his prerog- 
ative, for favors of that kind, if now conferred, might redound 
too greatly to the prejudice of New York. It may be imagined 
how Governor Carteret regarded the seizure of vessels intended 
to land at his port of entry. He indignantly denied the right of 
Andros to act thus, urging the nature of the grant to his brother. 
He declared in a letter to him that if he should use any force it 
Avould be resisted to the utmost. With the duke's orders in his 
hand, this was tantamount to rebellion or treason, and Andros 
sent an expedition to Elizabethtown, who took Carteret prisoner. 

The trial took place before a special meeting of the Court of 
Assize, of which the governor Avas himself the presiding officer. 
The letters produced so evidently showed the grant made by 
James to be a definite separation from New York's or his own 
jurisdiction, that Carteret's action in opening a port was entirely 
justifiable, and the verdict was an acquittal. When complaint 
Avas made against Andros before the king, he Avas not sustained 
by the Duke of York, at whose beck the wrong had been done, 
for it is the ])rivilege of royalty to abandon favorites to their 
fate when it becomes inconvenient to assume responsibility for 
their discredited conduct. So the New Jersey embroilment led to 
the recall of Andros. At home he had an opportunity of stating 



92 



THE EMPIRE STATE IiV THREE CENTURIES. 



tlie case exactly as it was, and Charles II. bad sense of justice 
enough to perceive that Andros had only done what his master 
had peremptorily demanded. He was, therefore, vindicated and 
was knighted for his services. 




VAN RENSSELAER ARMS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE GRANTING OF A POPTJLAK ASSEMBLY. 

HEliE enters now upon tlie list of governors a name 

wliuli deserves especial honor for the character of the 

man who bore it, for the important measures initiated 

under him, and for acts of administration in various 

particulars Avliich showed ability and firmness, and conduced to 

the lasting benefit of the province. 

Thomas Dongan had risen to the rank of colonel in the service 
of France, under the famous generals who carried victory and 
conquest far and wide for Louis XIV. He was the younger son 
of an Irish baronet, and was fort^^-eight years old when he was 
appointed Governor of New York. This distinction came to him 
as a personal friend of the Duke of York, and as a compensation 
for losses he had incurred in heeding the commands of the royal 
brothers. Having supported Charles I. during the Civil War, 
he went into exile with a number of Irish royalists, and a regi- 
ment having been formed of these, Dongan became an officer in it 
and rose to the rank of colonel. 

The peace of Nywegen having finally detached England from 
France, subjects of the llritish crown were ordered to leave the 
latter's armies. Louis offered to advance Dongan if he would 
remain in his service, but he refused to do so, and then he was 
ordered to quit France Avithin forty-eight hours, and the king re- 
fused to pay him a debt of sixty-five thousand livres. The King of 
England procured him a pension of £500 per annum, and in IGSO, 
as an additional compensation, he was made Lieutenant-Governor 



94 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

of Tangier in Africa. It may be that this rather shabby treat- 
ment of him by the Grand Monarch made Dongan all the more 
loyal to the interests of NeA\' York as against the French of 




SI •JVVi:SA>T TKARING NICOLLS S LETTKR np:MANDIX(} THE SUKUEMIKR OF THE 

PUOVINCE, lOO-i. 

rnnadn, when his master, James, was rather inclined to sacrifice 
them. Dongan was attached to i\\o lloniisli faitli, as was the 
Dnkc of York, bnt it did not make him, as it ma;le his master, the 
enemy of tlic people's liberties. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 95 

Dongan's commission was dated September 30, 1G82, but he 
did not arrive in America until August 10, 1083. He landed on 
that day at Nantasket, Mass. Crossing tlie Bound to Long Island 
at its eastern extremity, he traveled through most of those towns 
that had ever clamored most ])ei-sist(^ntlv for popular liberties, 
and thus they received from him at first hand the news of the 
great privilege in store for New York, that no laws would there- 
after be imposed iip<»n them except with the consent of a body 
they had been asking for for a long time. 

It was on Saturday, August 25, 1G83, that C«)lonel Dongan 
arrived at the seat of government in New York City. It was too 
late in the da^^ for official business, and the Sunday was too 
sacred for secular affairs, even of this high order. Therefore, on 
Monday, August 27, the magistrates convened at the City Hall 
on Coenties Slip, and the new governor read his commission and 
instructions. The corporation gave practical proof of its esteem 
by tendering him a baiKiuet at the City Hall on the next day, 
at which an opportunity was given for the governor to become 
acquainted with the prominent citizens of the little city, as well 
as with its officials. 

The chief item in Dongan's instructions was the C(unmand or 
authority to establish a representative assembly, which should 
have a share in the legislation of the province. More than once 
during the administration of previous governors the galling pres- 
sure of autocratic proceedings, and the total disregard of the 
popular will, had quickened in the people the desire to have a 
share in their own government. The desire could hardly enforce 
itself in the form of a demand, in their heli)less condition as a 
colony. But it had at last taken the shape of a petition, ad- 
dressed on June 29, 1G81, to James directly, and signed b}- the 
council of the province, the aldermen of the City of New York, 
and the justices of the peace of the various towns in the vicinity. 
Bancroft observes in regard to this that '' prompted by an ex- 
alted instinct they demanded power to govern themselves.'" 

But there was no exalted motive to appeal to in him whoui 



96 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES, 

they wished to grant this to them. James was induced to heed 
the request on much more material grounds. The disatt'ected 
people held the power of the purse. They could not exercise it in 
withholding revenues altogether, as could be done at home in 
England or in Holland. But disaffection could at least make the 
flow of treasure less abundant, and the Duke of York began to 
feel the pressure of a lack of funds. Then it was that he was led 
to risk the " dangerous consequences," as he regarded them, of a 
popular assembly, but it was distinctly on the condition that 
'' the inhabitants will agree to raise money to discharge the 
public debts, and to settle such a fund for the future as may be 
sufticient for the maintenance of the garrison and government." 
With the usual hyi^ocrisy of crowned heads he declared that 
" the common good and protection of the colony and the increase 
of its trade," were his main object, while any benefits to himself 
were only a secondary consideration. 

Thus it came about that Governor Dougan was instructed to 
call for the election of a General Assembly " of all the Free- 
holders by the persons whom they shall choose to represent 
them." His instructions read further, in defining the powers and 
privileges of these representatives, as follows : " And when 
the said Assembl}^ so elected shall be met at the time and place 
directed, you shall let them know that for the future it is my 
resolution that the said General Assembly shall have free liberty 
to consult and debate among themselves all matters as shall be 
apprehended proper to be established for laws for the good gov- 
ernment of the said colony of New York and its dependencies, 
and that if such laws shall be propounded as shall appear to me 
to be for the manifest good of the country in general, and not 
prejudicial to me, I will assent unto and confirm them." 

The Assembly was to be a sort of Lower House as compared 
with the Eoyal Council, whose members, to the number of ten, 
were to be appointed by the governor. When an act was passed 
in the Assembly, it was yet a long way before it could claim the 
name or force of a law. First it had to be confirmed bv the gov- 



Till'] EMTIUE STATE IN THUEE CENTURIES. 97 

eriioi', whose powor of the veto seemed to be iiurestricled. And 
there was a seeoiid V(4o ])owei- b(\Yond. An act of the Assenibl}^ 
iiii_ij;lit be ai»]>i-oved by the governor; but if it did uot suit the 
duke, liis disapproval ina<le it uull and void, vet it mi«»ht be 
caiTied iuto effect during the ijitei'val tliat uiust occur until the 
duke's (h'cisiou could be learned. It was popular representation 
in a Aery haltiui^ form indeed; but then it was popular represen- 
tatiitn. So much was i;ained at least. In the Assembly of New 
York " the people " met and could say that they (li<l so, and that 
" the people " enacted laws for their own rule. That fact, as well 
as statement, were made sulticiently evident lo alarm the royal 
])roth(M's, who cctmplained that such a term Avas " not used in 
any other constitution in America."' 

The number of the Assembly members was set at a limit of 
eighteen. Imperfectly districted as the province of New York 
was at this time, the distribution of representatives was on the 
folloAving plan: To each of the three ridings on Long Island 
were assigned two; to Staten Island, one; to Esopus, two; to Al- 
bany and Rensselaerwyck, two; to Schenectady, one; to Pema- 
quid (in Maine), one; to Martha's Yin<\vard and Nantucket, one; 
to New York, including Harlem, four. Writs for the election 
of these representatives were duly issued by order of Dongan 
and his council, and when the uKMubers were returned it ap- 
peared that a majority were of Dutch affiliation or nation- 
alit}^ This was to be expected, for there were only the two rid- 
ings on Long Island and the half of New Y^ork to w^eigh up 
against the preponderating Dutch element in the other districts. 

It was an event fraught with great consetiuences for the future 
of New Y'ork and of America, when this first representative As- 
sembly met. Its date should not be forgotten — Wednesday, Octo- 
ber 17, 1683. Seventeen delegates made their appearance at the 
govcM'uor's residence in the fort, and a room there was assigned 
for their sessions. There is no record of the names of the mem- 
bers of the Assembly, but those of the officers have been rescued 
from oblivion. Matthias Nicolls, who, under the governor of 



98 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



that name, was made secretary of the council, and who repre- 
sented New York City, was elected speaker, and John Si^raj^g, 
who was secretary of the province now, was made clerk. The 
Assembly sat for three weeks, and thej passed fourteen acts. 

The first of these was the charter establishini;' the Assembly 
itself, and by which it was declared " That the Supreme Legisla- 
tive authoi'ity, under His IMajesty and TJoyal ITiiihness, James. 
Duke of Yorke, Albany, etc.. Lord Proprietor of the said Province, 
shall forever bee and reside in a Governour Councill, and The 
People, uiett in a (Jenerall Assembly." It then went on to add 

" that every free- 
holder and free- 
man should be al- 
lowed to vote for 
r e p r e s e ntatives 
without restraint; 
that no freeman 
should suffer but 
by the judgment of 
his peers; that all 
trials should be by 
a }urj of twelve 
.<i$-^J^^'i\ men; that no tax 
T'''' should be assessed, 

on any pretense 
whatever, but by the consent of the Assembly; that no seaman 
or soldier should be quartered on the inhabitants against their 
will; that no martial law should exist; and that no person pro- 
fessing faith in God, by Jesus Christ, should at any time be any- 
wise disquieted or questioned for any difference of opinion." 

This, then, in summary form, ^\as the famous "Charter of 
Liberties and Priviledges.'" Its enactment well deserved a public 
ceremony. On the 30th of October the last clausi^ had been acted 
on and adopted, and the bill was signed by Governor Dongan, 
makiuii it a law at least until the duke could be heard from. The 




STUYVESANT S BOUWERY HOUSE. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 99 

jioxt da}^, October 31, 1G83, the people were summoned by the 
lively blare of trumpets to appear on the open space between the 
City Hall on Coenties Slip and the river. They must have stood 
on that portion (or part of the portion) of the slip between Pearl 
Street and the little riverside park, for all the rest has been re- 
claimed from the river since. While thus assembled the 
charter was read in their hearing, and they learned that they, 
" the people," had at last been recognized as an iut(\nral part of 
the government; that henceforth it was to be not only of the 
people, hy others, and for the Supreme Proprietor; but also hjj 
the people and for the people, in some real and appreciable, 
although limited and imperfect, degree. 

A week of session remained, and other acts of importance were 
passed. One established courts, of which there were four in 
regular gradation: town courts to be held monthly; courts of 
sessions, or county courts, meeting every quarter, or half yearly; 
a general court of oyer and terminer to sit twice a year in each 
county; and a court of chancery to be the supreme court of the 
province, composed of governor and council. On November 1 an 
act was passed for naturalizing '■'■ all those of foreign nations at 
present inhabiting within this province, and professing Chris- 
tianity, and for the encouragement of others to come and settle 
within the same," 

New arrivals could readily obtain citizenship by swearing 
allegiance to crown and proprietor. Subjects of the king did 
not take naturally to emigration, and hence the law was a timely 
one to make subjects of those who were coming in larger num- 
bers from other lands. During all of Governor Dongan's term 
not more than twenty families came from England, Scotland, and 
Ireland; while a great number came from France or the French 
West Indies on account of the persecutions preceding and attend- 
ing the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in IfiSS. Even the 
I)Ht( li people kept coming over in goodly numbers, drawn per- 
haps by relatives already lun-e. It is certain that in ITolland 
N(^w York was habitually ref(^rred to as New Netherland, even 



L.ofC. 



100 THE EMl>IRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

ill tlic corrcspoiKlciicc of (vc'lefsiastical bodies, as far down as the 
days of the lievolutioii. 

A most iiui)ortaiit act of this first Assembly for the history 
aud devehtpmeiit of the Empire State, was the divisiou of its 
territory at that early date " into shires aud coiinties." It was 
(livi(h'd into twelve coniities, only ten of wliieh concern us now. 
Two, Duke's County and C\)ruwaH ('ounty, included res])ect- 
ively the islands off the ^lassachusetts coast, aud a portion of 
Maine adjoinini; the St. ('roix Uiver, which were then "depend- 
encies" of New York, ])laced under I)ou;j,an's jurisdiction, and 
entitled to representative's in the Assembly. These counties were 
detached from New York when this province and New Eni;land 
were ])laced under one oovernment with Andros as Vice Hoy, 
and therefore we dismiss them from our account Just here. But 
a careful study of the ten counties into which the New Y'ork ter- 
ritory i»roper was divided will be interesting; and instructive as 
a prospectus in brief of our State's subseciuent development. 

These ten counties were: New York, Westchester, Richmond, 
lvin<;s, t^^it'^'us, Suffolk, I)u(t) chess, Oran.ne, Ulster, and Albany. 
The nomenclature was intended to compliment various members 
of the royal household; the King and (^ueen; Charles II. 's favor- 
ite though illegitimate son, the Duke of Kichmond, who later 
started a small rebellion against his uncle, James; the Prince of 
Orange, who had married James's daughter, ^Nlary, and who with 
her afterward occupi^Ml the throne; while the rest of the names 
w(M-e a]>i»lied in honor of the duke and his duchess, but unfor- 
tunately her title Avas spelled with a " t " until Samuel Johnson's 
(hiy, and it has not quite decidedly got out of the name of the 
county to this day, making every conscientious writer hesitate 
between his duty to orthography and tlu^ demands of geogra])hy. 
as re]»resented l)y soni(» ev(Mi very recent maps. Ulst(M' an<l 
Albany were suggest(Ml by the Duke < f' York's additional titles 
and possessions as an Irish and Scitttish ]»eer. A sheriff was 
a])pointed to scM-ve one yenr in each of the cimnties. 

The six counties immediately about the seat of government 



THE EMl'lUE STATE IN THREE CExXTUKIES. 101 

jiavc rcmaiiu'd iiii<liaiii;v(l niilil to-day New York, llicliiiioiid, 
^V('stclloste^, Kiii:L>s, (Queens, and Suffolk, familiar as they arc to 
ns ii(»w, received their limitations at oncc^ as they have ever been; 
unless we except (Queens Coui-iy, a i»art of which was annexed 
to New York City in L81)<S as the IJoroui^h of (Queens, Avhich made 
it expedient to erect the remainder into a separate county a]>pro- 
priately named Nassau, in memory of the name officially api)lied 
to LouL' Island in 1()1)3, in honor (d' Kinii William III., who was 
also Prince of Granite aiid Count of Nassau, but which was never 
ratitied by i)opu]ar usaj^e and faded away loni;' ai;(». But wlum 
Ave get north of A\'estchester, the old counties in their division 
into later ones tell an interesting story. Du(t) chess yielded a 
jjortion of itself, which Ix'came Putnam County in 1812. Orange 
was drawn upon earlier, and out of its lower triangle was created 
Itockland County in 1798. As we go higher up more multiplied 
development is met with, and we tind Ulster yielding a piece of 
itself to form part of Delaware County in 1797, and another to 
form part of (Jreene in 1800, while the whole of Sullivan was 
severed from it in 1809. 

The study of the partition of the Albany County of 1G83 is es- 
])ecially suggestive. By following this we get at once a forecast 
in (tutline of the hisfory of the progress of oui- State, ^^'hi(dl re- 
mains, of course, to be told later more particularly. Albany in 
1(583 will be seen to have covered practically all the remainder 
of tlie State, after culling out the nine counties with their bound- 
aries as then defined. In 1786 Columbia Count}/ was taken from 
it; in 1791 Rensselaer and Saratoga counties; in 1795 Schoharii^; 
in 1800 a ])art of Crecme; and in 1809 all of Schenechidy County. 
In 1772 there Avas formed from Albany what Avas called Char- 
lotte County then, bid which Avas recdiristened Washington 
Cotmty in 1784. It int lude<l all the gr(nit northeast corner of 
the State, for out of it Avere i)arcele<l Clinton County in 1788, and 
W^arren County in 1813, the former becoming in turn p]ssex in 
1799, a part of St. LaAvrence in 1802, and Franklin (N)unty in 180(1. 

And noAV, turning to the Avest, we shall tind that Albany had 



102 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



a very extoii.sive roach. Again in 1772, there was formed Tryon 
County, which, after the Revolution, in 1784 was renamed Mont- 
gomer}^ From this were partitioned successively Ontario 
County in 1789; Herkimer, Otsego, and Tioga Counties in 1791; 
St. Lawrence County in 1802, Hamilton in 181G, and Fulton in 
1838. But the four (uirlier counties meant a good deal more at 
first than their names imply now. Herkimer County embraced 
all the great '' middle Avest " of the State, being resolved subse- 




NEW YORK IN 1064. 



quently into Onondaga (1791), part of Chenango (1798), Oneida 
(1798), and St. Lawrence in part (1802); of which Onondaga 
became Cayuga in 1799, and Cortlandt in 1808, while witli 
Oneida it helped to form Oswego in 181G; Oneida also furnishing 
Jefferson and Lewis in 1805. 

(Joing back to the original Montgomery we find that the por- 
tion set off as Tioga County in 1791 covered what in 1806 was 
organized into Broome County, as well as what in 1836 became 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 103 

Cheiiiimg. But the old Montgomery included also all of the " far 
west " of the State; for what was earliest separated from it and 
called Ontario County, became Steuben (170G), Genesee (1S02), 
Livingston (1821), Monroe (1821), Wayne (1823), and Yates 
(1823). Of these Genesee included all the furthest western ter- 
ritory which has since been divided into AUeganj^ (180G), Cat- 
taraugus (1808), Chautauqua (1808), Niagara (1808), Orleans 
(1824), and Wyoming (1811) counties; of which Niagara 
yielded Erie in 1821; while Steuben gave up a part of Schuyler, 
the youngest county of the State, in 1851, which also drew por- 
tions from Chemung and Tompkins. While we may not have 
taken the opportunity to mention every one of the State's 
counties in this review, the above will show how the disintegra- 
tion of the original counties went on, and that even in 1083 a 
pretty clear conception was entertained of the territory consti- 
tuting the tlien province, and later State of New York. 

Governor Dongan's term stands forth as an epoch-making one 
for another important reason. It was under him, and sufficiently 
through his instrumentality to rellect some credit upon him, 
that New York City became a chartered corporation after sev- 
eral previous decades of existence as a city, and that Albany 
became a city and was chartered at the same time. Among the 
instructions which Dongan bore with him on his way to the gov- 
ernorship, was the one requiring him to consider and report what 
it would be desirable to grant to the City of New York in the 
way of " immunities and fjrivileges beyond what other parts of 
my territory doe enjoy." The shrewd officials of New York were 
not slow to take note of this item, and saw to it that Dongan 
should be abundantly assisted in his " considering." 

For nearly twenty years now New York had been an English 
city, so far as the form of government was concerned, there being 
a mayor and aldermen and a sheriff, just as Nicolls had instituted 
that system in 1665. But all these officials were appointed ab- 
solutely by the governor without any regard to the wish of the 
people, except as the governor chose to defer to this unex- 



104 THE EMPIRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 

pressed by the selection of i)opnlai' and etlieieut magistrates. 
But thepeo])le in Enuhmd nsnallv had something to do with the 
election of their aldermen; and the city needed more officers 
than those cited above. Hence the mayor and aldermen in ofhce 
at that time addi-essed a i)etition to (Jovernor Dongan the day 
after the I'roviiicial Assembly adjourned, or on November 9, 
1G83, asking that a cdiarter be extended to the city, securing 
some of these changes in the administration. 

(Jovernor Dongan could not have been unfavorable to the re- 
<iuest, but <h)ubtless many formalities had to intervene, and the 
duke need(Ml to be consulted, and his consent obtained, before 
the charter could go into effect. At any rate, it was not until 
Api'il 27, 1(18(5, that the document, duly signed and sealed, w^as 
handed over to the city authorities. It added to the offices of 
mayor and sherifl", those of recorder, clerk, and chamberlain. 
These were to be appointed by the governor: the mayor an^l 
sheriff annually, the others to hold office during his pleasure. 
Then it was i)rovided that the city be divided into six wards, 
in each of Avhich the people were to elect an alderman and an 
assistant alderman annually. 

At this time New York was but a little city as yet. Its i>o])ula- 
tion numbered scarcely three thousand. The whole of the space 
divided into five of the six wards lay scuith of Wall Street, and 
the streets were by no nutans croAvded with houses. The Sixth 
^^'al'd Ava.s indeed im]M)sing in size, embracing all the rest of the 
Island of Manhattan; but the i»oi)ulation was extremely limite<l 
here, an<l no where was then^ a collection of inhabitants large 
enough to be dignified with tlu^ name of hamlet, except at the 
northeastern extremity where Harlem had grown into a village, 
yet by the ]»rovisions of the charter was even thus inirly made a 
part of N(Mv Voik (Mty. 

The commerce (^f the ca])ital did not as yet foreshadow the 
great things to come. There were only a few great trading ships 
that visited the harbor, coming from England or the West Indies, 
other vessels of large burden and great spread of canvas might 





Or/m/l/ 




TIIK KMl'lKK STATM IN THREE CENTURIES. 105 

be occasioual privateeivs ruimiuij; iii tor siii)pli('S, aud then out 
tvgaiu to cripple the eoiiimerce of opposing belligerents, for the 
nations of Christendom were in a ehronie state of warfare then. 
The eonmierce between the colonies was I'epresented in New 
York harbor by less than a dozen vessels of three masts, but 
small tonnage, not exceeding eighty or one hundred tons. Hloops 
of twent^^-five tons were most plentiful, there being about a score 
of them, of which a lieet to the number of tive was engaged in 
the trade up the Hudson, to Kingston or Esopus, and to Albany. 

This place of earliest settlement had been passed in the race 
for municipal being by the more advantageously located New 
Vork. It had been a mere trading post, then became something 
more of an agricultural center, and under the guidance aud en- 
couragement of the van Rensselaers had advanced from a hamlet 
to the proportions of a village. Some of the i)eople, however, 
chafed under the extreme paternalism of the I'atroon system, and 
so they escaped to Schenectath', founding this under the lead of 
Van Corlaer, as we saw; while others at a somewhat later period 
went down to help build up the towns near the Esopus. Albany 
was not much more than a village now. Ten years later, or in 
1(195, it numbered two hundred houses, which makes it safe to 
calculate for it about a thousand souls for a population. It must 
have been considerably below this figure in l(i86. 

This did not prevent the people from aspiring to be a city, and 
surely New York's pro])ortions were not such as to make it much 
more worthy of this dignity. The aspiration was all the more 
justifiable, because in giving a patent for Kensselaerswyck in 
1(585, there had been no care taken by the government to exclude 
Albany from the jurisdiction of these private owners. A com- 
mittee of the council induc(Ml the i)atroon to relinquish a strij) 
of territory one mile wide, measuring north and south, and 
stretching sixteen miles west from the river. This land was 
now assigned to the corporation of Albany in the charter which 
Dongan granted it in 1086, and which made a city of the " an- 
cient town " of Beverswyck, or Willemstadt. 



106 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



The shape of the commonalty actually occupied, and Availed 
or palisaded, was triauiiular, with its base on the river and its 
apex opeuinj;' toward the ancient Fort Orange on the hill where 
the Capitol stands now, the circumference measuring not more 
than six furlongs. The streets were not paved all the way across, 
but sidewalks on a level with the central roadway extended 
eight feet from the line of the houses on either side. There were 
only two principal streets : Jonkaer, Jonkheer, or Yoncker 
Street, represented by State Street of to-day, and running about 
half way up tlie steep hill; and Handelaer (Merchant) Street, 
now Broadway. The earliest church, built in 1642, had been re- 
placed by a new one in 105C, which in turn was followed by a 

more ambitious structure in 1715. 
This stood until 1806 on the old 
site, in the middle of the road at 
the intersection of State Street 
and Broadway. 

The charter gave to the city of 
Albany a maj^or, a recorder, a 
clerk, a sheriff, a chamberlain, 
and a marshal. Here, as in New 
York, these offices were to be ap- 
pointive, the mayor and sheriff" being appointed annually, the 
others to hold during pleasure. The city, like New York, was 
divided into six wards, and each ward elected its alderman and 
assistant alderman. One of the first group of aldermen thus 
elected is of interest to all Americans, because he was John 
AVeudell, and the ancestor on the maternal side of Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes. The first mayor was Peter Schuyler, and he 
was reappointed for eight successive years. The first city clerk, 
as we might naturally expect, was Robert Livingston. 

In following his fortunes we come upon the track of the devel- 
opment of the State in the direction of the lower sections, where 
wide gaps of unoccupied country keep staring us in the face long- 
after the incori)oration of these two cities at either end of the 




DE SILLE HOUSE, LONG ISLAND, 16G8. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 107 

navigable Hudson. " Gifted with remarkable acquisitiveness," 
as Brodhead puts it, '' aud enjoying peculiar official advantages, 
lie learned that there were valuable lands on the east side of the 
Hudson, just below those of the van Rensselaers, which had 
never been granted by the government of New York." It was 
not difficult for him to obtain a grant here, and thus began the 
history of the famous Livingston Manor, which extended from a 
point opposite Catskill to a point opposite Saugerties, and east- 
ward to the boundaries of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

There was, hoAvever, another place on the way down to New 
York which doubtless also imagined that it might soon lay claim 
to being incorporated as a city. In the vicinity of the Esopus 
Creek, emptying into the Hudson about ninety miles from Man- 
hattan and sixty below Albany, three towns had come to be es- 
tablished since the conquest by the English. In 1C69 commis- 
sioners were sent up there and organized the village of Marble- 
town, named so from the blue limestone abounding there; and 
to a village or township which the Dutch had called Nieuwdorp 
( New Village) they gave the name Hurley, as we saw before, in 
compliment to the baronial seat belonging to the branch of the 
Lovelace family which had been raised to the peerage. At the 
same time they changed the name of Esopus and called it Kings- 
ton, in honor of Governor Lovelace's mother, whose family had a 
seat at Kingston in Berkshire. 

Prosperity marked these three villages, thousands of bushels 
(tf grain were annually raised and exported thence, and good 
fortune brought increase of population. As yet, howx^ver, no 
thought of incorporation as a city possessed the people here. But 
they did think in the old Esopus, or new Kingston, that they 
were entitled to more direction of their own town affairs. So, 
early in the year 1684, with so many innovations aud privileges 
going about, and the County of LTlster just newly organized, the 
villagers met together and signed a petition, drawn up by some 
of their trusted leaders, " humbly shewing " that they would 
like to have the privilege of electing their own town officers. 



108 THE EMPIUE STATE I\ TUUEE CENTURIES. 

It does not look like a very rcvohitioiiai y demand. The Long 
Island towns, even in Stuyvesant's day, bad elected a donble 
number of officers, from whom the director .chose the incum- 
bents. Vet these petitioners u]) in Ulster County, under the 
mild and beneficent reii;n of Doui^an, bearing' in his hands all 
sorts of extensions of i)rivilege, found themselves incontinently 
(dapped into jail, and then fined and bound over to keej) the 
peace. The ground for these summary proceedings was that in 
submitting their humble petition they had committed " a riot." 
"Acknowledging that they had b(H'n 'ill advised,'" says Brod- 
liead, " they were relieved "; but whether from the jail or the tine 
he does not say. And, strangely enough, the historian makes no 
connnents, as if he quite agreed that these honest townfolks, in- 
cluding possibly some of Ids own ancestors, were nothing but a 
low rabble of " rioters." 

Another event that makes (Governor Dongan's term mem- 
orable, was the elevation of the proprietor of the province to 
the throne of England, making considerable alteration in the 
position of the colon}', and rendering it one not altogether favor- 
able to the prosperity and hai)piness of the inhabitants. In 
February, 1G85, Charles II. died, and, having no legitimate 
children, his brother James, Duke of York, succeeded him as 
king. Thus at once New York became a dependency of the 
crown, and ceased to be a proprietary goA^ernment. It was a 
matter of gratihcation to the people, the glamour of royalty being 
a very real thing in th(*se <h\ys. It identified them more closely 
with the realm to be a crown possession, rather than the private 
l)roperty of a subject, hoAvever exalted. And if James had been 
so gracious in granting " privileges and immunities " when lie 
was but a duke, and his will was not supreme, but must be made 
to accord with that of the reigning monarch, surely now that he 
reigned himself, the way to the most liberal devices for his 
people being unobstructed, would be all the more eagerly pur- 
sued by him. 

But the people of that day had not tlie advantages of studying 



THE EMr'HiH STATi; IX 'I'lIRIOK CENT UK IKS. 



109 



.laiiM's's cliiirnclci- ;iii(l uiol i\('s I lull siihs('(|ii<'iit i;<Mi<'i'al ions lunc 
enjoyed. Mis iihcial xicws on llic suhjoci of i-clii^ions tolci'Jit ion 
\\(*i-<' I ho onl^i-ou I li of liis own pi-cciiiioiis posit ion as In-ii- of I lie 
crown, and an adliorcnt of the Ifoniisli lailli. An<i lliat same 
))i"('cai'ions |)osilion as lo the snccossion caiiscfl iiini to accede 
to nn'asnres <lesired b\- Ids c(»lonisls w ld( li lie ablioi-red in his 
s<'ci-el heart, hnl I he ^raiH ini; <»!' which wouhl conceal I'roni \ie\\ 
his i-eal at t it nd<' as to pojtn la r rights, and make him m<»re loh-ra- 
bh' to th<' riii^lish nation as a i>ros)>ecli\'e kinj^. 

II was not loni;, Ixfoi-e the dull and nai-i-ow iialnre (d' .lames 
revealed its seci-el allilnde on 1 he (piestion ol |)o|Milai* re|)r<'S<*n- 
talion in his .\mei-ican |»ro\ince. Soon after he iiad become 
kinj;- he was ])r(*seTit at a meeting; of tlie JMaidation Coniinittee, 
and it was at this time that the obseivaiion was made that tlie 
l)hrase "The ]*e<)])le nnd in (Jeneral Assembly," was not fonnd 
in any other c<donial (harlei-. The "rhai-tei- of IM-i vilei;('S," 
passed b_\' the tii-st Assembly and si^iiecl by Doni^an, was now up 
for cipjjroval. .lames did not abi"o_i;ate it dii-ectly. He did not 
rejx'al it, bnt he de(dined to conlirm it, and he had no intention 
that it slionld be a lastini; institution. IJy some of the instruc- 
tions he sent to Don.nan, in what amcninted to a new commission, 
ne<-essilale<l b_\' the (diani^c in his position in the i-ealm, he i-<'ally 
made the Assembly nu<;at()ry, and its enact nn-nls of small ac- 
count. ''As to the government of New York, His Majesty is 
])leased t<» dii-ect that it be assimilatecl to the constitution that 
shall be a^i-eed on f</r New Knj:,land, to whi(di it is a<ljoiidnii'.'" 
I»ut that New J*]n,i;land constitution /// posse poss<'ssed no such 
feature as a po])idai' asscMubly. "And in the meantime," the 
kiiiL;' tlii-ected "(\donel Dcuij^an, (Jovei'iior of New ^'ork, to ])ur- 
sue such jtowei'S ami insti-uctions as he shall i-ecei\'e undei' liis 
.Majesty's signet and sii^n nia?iual, oi- by oimIci- in coum-il, uidil 
furthei- order." 

The ]dain intent of snch orders have naturally enough led some 
authoi'S lo state that the " Charter of Liberties " was r(^])udiate(| 
out of hand, and that the Assemblv was abolished. It miuht as 



110 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



well have boon, for soon a direct tax was imposed without the 
Irouhlc of askiiii;' the Assembly to pass upon the measure. 
Aiiionu other cliaracloristic injunctions sent out to Governor 
l)on«ian, was one entirely worthy of the source whence it pro- 
ceeded. It was exi)ressly forbidden him to allow the settin*; up 
of any printing- press within the province of New^ York. Igno- 
rance is not only the mother of devotion; it is also that of unques- 
tioiiinii' submission to despotic power. James was far-seeing 
enough to know how much this ignorance would serve the pur- 
])(»ses he had in yie^v. Only he miscalculated the age in which 

he lived by a couple of centuries. 
The (Jeneral Assembly of " The 
People '' was not abolished at 
once; it went on by default of 
positive prohibition for a while. 
The second Assembly met in Oc- 
tober, 1GS4; Matthias Nicolls was 
again elected speaker, and thirty- 
one acts were passed, and being 
signed by the governor, they be- 
came laAvs. It adjourned to meet 
in September, 1G85. But in the 
meantime had occurred the 
change in the occupants of the 
throne. This event seemed jwr -sr to have been the dissolution of 
the body as previously constituted. To leave no doubt upon its 
validity, Dongan, by the advice of the council, dissolved the 
original Assembly by a proclanmtion dated August 13, 1685, and 
four days later writs were issued f(>r electing new delegates to 
meet in New York on October 20. 

On that day the third Assembly met, and William Pinhorne 
was chosen speaker. It did not achieve nearly as much business 
as its two predecessors, and the governor's approval by no 
means covered all its enactments, as heretofore. Only six bills 
became laws. Three bills failed to get the governor's signature. 




THE KIP HOUSF, 1673 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. Ill 

When it adjourned, it did so to meet in September, IGSG. It 
never met again. Prorogued for six months ere it assembled 
at the time appointed, by procdamation of (lovernor Dougan, on 
January 20, KJST, it was dissolved altogether, and no writs for a 
new election issued. The old regime came into operation again; 
the governor and council imposed the taxes and framed the 
statutes for the people, without asking after their will or wish 
in the premises. But there were better days coming. Popular 
representation was not so easily killed. " Taxation without eon- 
sent " was not a process under which either Dutchmen or Eng- 
lishmen could rest quiet and content. 

Turning now again to a branch of the history of New York 
which must have a large share of our attention during these 
earlier periods, we shall find that distinction once more belongs 
to the governor whose name is so prominentl}- identified with 
the introduction of popular representation. The historian, Will- 
iam Smith, earliest to write the annals of the province, says that 
Dongan surpassed all his predecessors in his attention to Indian 
affairs. The first occasion to deal with the question of the rela- 
tions with the Indians occurred in June, IGSl, when a distin- 
guished visitor arrived in New York Cit}', It was no less a 
person than Lord Effingham, the Governor of Virginia and Mary- 
land, attended by two members of his council. The arrival of a 
peer of England created quite a stir in the little capital, and the 
magistrates were not slow to offer Lord Effingham the freedom 
of the city in the usual ceremonious manner. 

But the governor of these southern colonies came not on a 
visit of ceremony. He came to propose unison of effort in the 
punishment of Indian raiders, to enter upon a war against the 
Iroquois. This was, of course, out of the question in New York, 
where the English had succeeded to the terms with the Dutch at 
the treaty of Tawasentha, and where friendship and alliance 
bound the Five Nations to the inhabitants against the ever 
present menace of French invasion. Therefore, Dongan trans- 
formed Lord Effiingham's warlike errand into a mission of peace. 



112 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Three of the Five Nations — the Onoiidagas, Oueidas, and Caj^u- 
gas — probably in jmrsnit of some tribes at the south, had com- 
mitted depredations npou the white settlements along the north- 
ern boundary of Virginia and Maryland. The Governor of New 
York invited Lord Effingham and his eonncilors to go up to 
Albany with him, and there meet representatives from the Iro- 
quois League. To this he consented, and the conference took 
place on July 30, 1684. 

Delegates were present from the three nations who had given 
the trouble, and also from the Mohawks. The Senecas did not 
arrive till after it was over, because of the distance they had 
to travel, but they at once coniirmed what had been done. Terms 
were agreed upon, and a peace concluded, attended by the s^-m- 
bolic ceremonies that the Indian nature loA^ed so well. Five 
tomahawks were buried, representing "SMrginia and Maryland 
and the three offending nations; then was sung a song, and the 
orators grew eloquent over the planting of a tree of peace, whose 
tops should reach the sun, and its branches shelter the wide 
land. 

It was really a most significant meeting, and Bancroft, with 
justice, recognizes in it one of the first tendencies to union among 
the colonies. For not only were here representatives from Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, and New York, but ^lassachusetts also had had 
trouble with the League, and Dongan had secured the presence 
of an agent for that colony. The pacific branches did indeed 
shelter a wide land. As Bancroft remarks, " The treaty ex- 
tended from the St. Croix to Albemarle." No wonder the Indians 
were thankful to Dongan for the mediation which confirmed 
them in their friendship of the whites, not only of New Y^ork, but 
of these other colonies. They were all the more ready to stand 
in the way of French aggression. 

They gave many j^ractical evidences of their regard for Don- 
gan. Before the conference broke up they had put upon white 
dressed deerskins their totemic signatures to the formal acknowl- 
edgment of Charles 11. as ih'Av sovereign, or great sachem-in- 



THE EAIPIKE STATE IN TIIKEE CENTURIES. 113 

chief. And all the territory about the headwaters of the Siis- 
(liiehaima Kiver, above AN'vahisiiii; Falls, was freely granted to 
New York Province. This was of especial significauce, because 
upon his arrival in the previous year, Dongan had been com- 
pel RmI to act promptly in order to head off an attempt on the 
part of William Penn to secure the upper Susquehanna Valley. 
Penn and two agents were actually at Albany trying to arrange 
the purchase of this tract when Dougan reached New York City. 
He rei)aired to the same place less than tAvo weeks after he had 
been inducted into office. 

The Albany authorities assured Dongan that there was " noth- 
ing more prejudicial to his Iv(>yal Ilighness' interest and the in- 
habitants of this government than this business of the Susque- 
hanna Piver. The French, it is true, have endeavored to take 
away our trade by jjiecemeal, but this will cut it olf at once." 
The governor, therefore, hastened to interrupt Penn's trans- 
action. Tlie folloAving October some of the Mohawks visited 
Dongan at New York and they promised then to give the Sus- 
quehanna region to the Duke of York. This promise was now 
fulfilled at the treaty of 1G84; and when Penn renewed his efforts 
to purchase the tract he was met with the information that they 
could no longer disiK»se of them. It is asserted that Penn re- 
venged himself upon Dongan by using his influence with Janx's, 
when he had become king, in prejudicing him against the gov- 
ernor. 

In order that it might be evident to all concerned that the 
Indians of the Five Nations had made themselves voluntarily 
subjects of the English king, they wished Dongan to permit 
them to attach the arms of the Duke of York to each one of the 
five " castles," or palisaded villages, where the several nations 
had their headquarters. And in the (exuberance of friendship 
they gave the name of " sixth castle " to Albany. For the 
mutual benefit of the Indians and the people of Albany, Dongan 
adopted a liberal policy in regard to trade with the Indians. 
He gave passes to young men of courage and enterprise to go 



114 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



among the Indians near the Niagara and induce them to send 
their peltries to Albany instead of to Canada, and as a result 
the Senecas brought ten thousand beaver skins there. And, 
seeing the necessity of preserving so valuable a trade, by the 
protection of the Iroquois from the constant attacks of their 
hereditary enemies, the French, he sought to make it plain to 
those high in authority that forts should be erected, well pro- 
vided with men and guns, at such points as Ticonderoga, the 
mouth of the Oswego, an<l the shores of the Niagara. 

Maintaining friendly relations with the Iroquois was tanta- 
mount to defying the hostility of the French of Canada. Con- 
stantly were the Five 







stuyvesant's gkave, 1G72. 



Nations in collison 
with the French. War 
parties of the savages 
would carry desolation 
and death among the 
natives in alliance with 
them, or upon settle- 
ments of whites 1 hem- 
selves. And then in re- 
turn a raid would be 
made into the InKjuois 
country in New York, 
led by French soldiers. Against such incursions Dongau pro- 
tested, asserting that the people of the Five Nations were sub- 
jects of the King of England, and the French governors would 
deny their right to be so regarded. By a seeming contradiction 
the authorities of Canada would jx'rsist in sending missionaries 
among the Iroquois. I>ut it was n(»t so mucli in order to convert 
their souls as in order to convert implacable and irrepressible 
enemies into allies and ]m)titable traders. 

When this result did not follow, the missionaries were quite 
as readil^^ utilized to lure the Indians to their destruction. Thus 
Governor Denonville, in 1687, employed Father Lamberville to 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIUEE CENTURIES. 115 

decoy a larj^e miiuber of Iroquois sachems iuto a palisaded fort 
at Onondaga Castle, whereupon fifty of the chiefs were seized, 
put in irons, and sent to France to languisli in the chain-galleys 
at ]Nrarseilles. This only drove the Indians to a more desperate 
enmity of the French, rendering them more than ever a bulwark 
jigainst French aggression. Before this Dongan had interrupted 
the scheme of the French to invite trade with Canada by the 
good work of their missionaries, by substituting English Jesuits 
for those sent out from France. 

A still bolder invasion of the field which the Canadian authori- 
ties thought peculiarly their own, was initiated by the foresight 
of Dongan. A Canadian refugee named la Fontaine, familiar 
with the trade routes of the far West, whence immense quan- 
tities of furs were drawn to Montreal and (Quebec, was given a 
pass authorizing him to go into those regions and trade with the 
Indians in the interest of England. IJut Dcmgan prudently ar- 
ranged that the I^renchman should not go alone. With hiui 
was sent Captain Rooseboom, of Albany, The party they organ- 
ized and led traveled for three months, reaching the Ottawas 
and ^liamis at their home villages, and driving most satis- 
factory bargains. Kooseboom (whose name should have been 
Roosevelt) was urged to come every year; and lie was assured 
that if he would jtersuade the Henecas to let tlicm ])ass through 
their country they would come to Albany themselves. 

These various dealings with the Indians, so well calculated 
to cement their im])ortant and valuable friendshi]*, an<l to im- 
prove trade conditions for New York, were very grievous to the 
French authorities of Canada, who complained to tluMr king, 
and who in turn remonstrated with James. The latteFs in- 
terests were so deeply involved in keeping on good t(M'ms with 
Louis, that he deprecated the strained relations in America. 
He was constantly sending out instructions to Dongan with 
regard to Canada and missionaries, which would have done 
serious injury to the people of New York had the governor car- 
ried them out. He preferred to evade them, and risk the king's 



116 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

displeasure, rather than jeopardize the lives and interests of the 
inhabitants of his government. 

This could only result in Dongan's recall. It was also necessi- 
tated by the new plan of dominion for his colonies which had 
taken possession of James's mind. In carrying out this plan 
measures would have to be instituted (especially the abolition of 
the popular assembly) which \v(tuld upset things which Dongau 
had at first been made the instrument to bring about, and for 
the establishment of which he had proved only too willing and 
sympathetic an instrument. Under this new arrangement, there- 
fore, Governor Dongan was succeeded by 8ir Edmund Andros, 
wliom he had himself succeeded in 1G82, the date of the latter's 
appointment being March 23, 1G88. 

Dongan did not immediately return to England; he remained 
to improve various pieces of property in different pariS of the 
province, particularly on ^lanhattan. Long, and Staten Islands. 
He at first retired to a farm at Hempstead, on Long Island. But 
later he went to reside in a manor house standing on a manor 
of twenty-five thousand acres wliicli he had purchased on Staten 
Island, in the towm of Castleton, named after his family's estates 
in Irehwid. During the Leisler troubles this place was searched, 
and he was comj^elled to flee to England in IGDl in a brigantine 
of his own. He made his peace with King William III. and 
became Earl of Limerick on the death of an older brother. 
He died a bachelor at the age of eighty-one years in 1715. The 
])ro])erty on Staten Island was left to nephews, and remained 
ill Die possession of their descendants until the year 1802, when 
it was s(dd to Alexander ]\facomb, the owner of the house on 
BroadAvay, New York City, which had been Washington's official 
residence while President. 

Sir Edmund Andros occu])i(Ml a much more exalted position 
in 1688 than the one he came to assume in 1671. He had come 
to Boston as Governor of New England in December, 1686; as 
such it was not enough that he should govern INIassachusetts; 
Connecticut must surrender her charter, and on October 31, 1687^ 



THE EMPIUE STATE IN THUEE CENTURIES. 117 

Aiidros assumed the novernmont of that colony also. But eveii 
yet the scheme of government now on the carpet was not com- 
plete. New^ York and New Jersey must likewise be added, and, 
this effected, Sir Edmund Andros was made (lovernor-General, 
or Viceroy, of a realm sjjlendid at least in its territorial extent, 
and grandiloquently desiiiuated as the '" Territory and Dominion 
of New Enghmd in Anu'rica,"' which, including all of British 
North America north of " our Province of Pennsylvania and 
Country of Delaware," stretched clear across the continent from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

We are in some danger of losing sight of the identity of our 
own State in this vast consolidation of territory; and the people 
of that date felt about it in very much the same way. " The 
peojjle of New York," Brodhead finds from the records he ac- 
cumulated abroad, " Avere not generally pleased that their prov- 
ince should lose its individuality. . . . Geographically, 
politically, and socially New York Avas unlike any other British 
possession in America. . . . Her people cherished a mag- 
nanimous State pride, not surpassed by that professed in any 
of the colonies by which she was surrounded." To use their own 
expression, they felt their position in the grand '' Dominion," to 
be an " unmerited state of degradation," and abundant cause for 
a " just dissatisfaction." 

The governor-general was to be supported in his administra- 
tion of so many lands and so few people by a council of forty- 
two members, a combination it would seem of the councils of 
the various colonies. Andros Avas not restricted to any one 
place as his capital or seat of government, but as he could not 
be present in all of the consolidated provinces at once, he usually 
ai)pointed a lieutenant-governor in the ones he was absent 
from to represent him there in meetings of the local council. 
So in this way we begin to see New York emerge once more into 
a sort of faint and reflected individuality, Avith Colonel Francis 
Nicholson as its lieutenant-governor, and a council composed of 
Frederick Philipse, Stephen Van Cortlandt, Nicholas Bayard, 



118 



THE EMriUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



•4I 



^? 



.^•«l 



^'^ 



a / 



L 



'J 



ilniiuiiii 



and Anthony Brockholls. As Andros 
himself was compelled to make his head- 
quarters at Boston in order to (jnell an 
outbreak of Indian hostilities in ^Maine, 
this arrangement went into effect for 
New York on October 1, 1088. 

At that very time the ships of a Dutch 
fleet and a formidable army wtn'e col- 
lecting- on the coast of the North Sea in 
Holland, to convey the Prince of Orange 
to England, where he landed on Novem- 
ber 5, and was crowned king, with 
Mary, the daughter of James II., as 
reigning queen with him, in February, 
1()89. The news of the various steps in 
this revolution came to America at 
various times successively from l>b- 
ruary to April, until on April 14, 1(>81), 
the information reached Boston that 
William and Mary had been crowned in 
the i)lace of JNIary's father, who had fled 
to France, and by the flight was con- 
sidered to have abdicated the throne. 
Andros was at once seized by the people 
of Boston and imprisoned on the charge 
of tyranny and maladministration. 

To New York came the exciting news 
from England, accompanied by the no 
less exciting account of its effects upon 
the Boston people. Nicholson had rea- 
son to expect an equally sudden and un- 
ceremonious deposition. The people did 
not know what to expect from the 
officers of the deposed king. Would 
they, too, consort with France? If so, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 119 

that would be peenliarly perilous for the province of New York, 
with the black cloud of invasion and rapine ever hangiiii*' over 
the northern border. Neither were the council, made up of 
natives of Dutch affiliation, quite to be relied on. At the an- 
nouncement of the birth of the Prince of Wales, claimed to have 
been a deception practiced by James 11. , and which would have 
forever barred the Prince of Oran<;e and his wife and a Protes- 
tant succession from the throne, unseemly j^lee was manifested 
by Councilor Stephanus Van Cortlandt, who, at a bauijuet in 
honor of the event, set his hat and periwii;' on lire, and swung 
them about his head on the point of his rapier. 

At this crisis the lieutenant-iiovernor showed tact and good 
sense. He offered to let the local militia guard the fort. There 
were five companies, as was stated in the preceding chai)ter, and 
it was arranged that the companies should mount guard in turn 
on successive nights. Thus all went well until Nicholson upset 
what he had so prudently secured. On the night of May 31 he 
objected to the posting of a certain sentinel, and wished to know 
by what authority he was placed there. He replied that he was 
there by the appointment of the lieutenant of the militia com- 
pany, whose turn it was to keep guard that night, Nicholson's 
temper at once got the better of his prudence, and he exclaimed 
that he would rather see the town burned than submit to an 
officer of militia. 

He could not have used a more unfortunate expression. A 
rumor, foolish and wildly improbable, it is true, but of great 
potency for alarm, had it that the "papists" in the city (you 
could count them on the fingers of one hand) were plotting to 
bring the French and Indians down from Canada to burn the 
town and massacre the inhabitants. Did not Nicholson threaten 
to burn tlu^ town? Drums beat, the militia companies formed 
in front of the captain's houses and marched in haste to the fort. 
Nicholson was no longer to be trusted, nor a council devoted to 
James. A paper was therefore drawn up, signed by the five 
captains of militia, in which they assumed the direction of 



120 THI-: EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

afifairs, each in turn bearing command as '' Captain of the Fort," 
from (lay to day. A few days later the captain whose turn it 
was to conmiand t'siat day, scmt his lieutenant to the City Hall 
where Nicholson and his council were in session, and demanded 
the keys of the fort and town. They were given up, and Nichol- 
son, fearing a fate like that of Andros, went aboard an English 
ship in tlie harbor and sailed for England. 

The captains now jointly issued a call for a convention of dele- 
gates from the several counties, on the phm of the abolished 
General Assembly. Twelve delegates appeared on June 26 from 
all of the counties except the far away Ulster and Albany; and 
ten of these constituted themselves into a Committee of Safety, 
to guide the affairs of the province. They made some changes 
in the military arrangements, first appointing as permanent 
" Captain of the Fort '' the senior of the five captains of militia, 
Jacob Leisler, and following this up in August by extending the 
same individual's authority over a wider field, making him, as 
they termed it, " Military Commander of the Province "; all this, 
be it remembered, to be operative only in a provisional way, and 
(kI iiifcfini, until the king and queen could be heard from re- 
garding their wish(^s as to the govei-nment of the province. 

And thus we have come upon the name of Leisler. Who was 
he? He was the son of a clergyman of Frankfort, Germany. In 
1(>(U) he had come to New Amsterdam as one of the soldiers in 
the service of the Dutch West India Company. He had aban- 
don(Ml the life of a s(»]<li(4' for that of a merchant, and had ac- 
(juired a comfortable competence, sailing sometimes in his own 
ships. He had married a maiden of the city, and thereby had 
allied himself more or less distantly with the families of Bayard 
and Van Cortlandt. He was also a deacon of the Dutch Re- 
formed Church. When Andros interested himself so greatly in 
raising companies of militia, or trainbands, Leisler's military 
experience of earlier days came into good stead, and he was the 
oldest of the five captains, either in years or in service. It seems 
to have been by virtue of this senioritv that he had now beei- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 121 

brought into proinineiice above his colleagues, and invested for 
the time with supreme command in the province. 

This is a studiously mild and colorless presentation of the 
events that took place at this critical juncture. We are aware 
we are treading on dangerous ground when presuming to treat 
of the period of " the Leisler troubles." It is not a pleasant sub- 
ject for the impartial historian, and it seems even y<4 to be im- 
possible for any historian to maintain a perfectly neutral atti- 
tu(l(\ Prejudices of the most violent nature were awakened 
among the neighbors and citizens of the little capital, which 
have been handed down in the families involved in the contro- 
versy of two hundred years ago. And accounts colored by these 
partisan feelings have misled writers into denouncing Leisler 
as a brute and a villain of the worst dye, or into exalting him as 
a saint and a martyr. 

Brodhead takes very strong ground against him. But it must 
be remembered that this author based his history almost en- 
tirely upon the original documents he was sent to gather in 
Europe for the State, and the papers that were sent by the 
officials that condemned Leisler to death, would not be likely 
to contain impartial statements of his acts or motives, or to give 
very accurate versions of the proclaniati(ms or otln^r papers he 
issued. As it seems to be impracticable to gain a perfectly fair 
estimate of the situation and of the man, we deem it best to be 
as brief as possible. The animosities which led to so tragic an 
(^nding of the episode were mainly awakened by close personal 
contact and friction of the principal actor in the drama within 
the limits of the city. We had better keep before us, therefore, 
the transactions that called for the broader stage of the State, 
as more germane to the scope of these pages. 

Jacob Leisler exercised his authority' as " Commander " of 
fort and province by a consistent recognition of the rights of the 
people, at least at the beginning. He issued orders for the elec- 
tion of delegates to an assembly, to which but a feeble response 
was made, in IfiSO; but in April, 1G90, an assembly met with 



122 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



representatives from all the counties except Suffolk and Queens. 
In keeping with the reign of democracy the citizens of New York 
were invited to elect their major in September, 1G89, instead of 




ADMIRAL CORNELIUS EVEKTSKN. 



receiving him by appointment at the hands of the commander; 
and, the people responding, the election took place, an event not 
to be repeated in New York City till 1834. 

On December 1, 1G89, a letter came to New York which was to 
figure very largely in subsequent discussions, and upon which the 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIIIEE CENTURIES. 123 

legitimacy of necessarily doubtful proceedings were made to 
iiiuge. It was from their joint majesties, and its address was 
peculiar, yet well adapted to the exigencies of the times. The 
superscription ran: "To Francis Nicholson, Esq., our Lieuten- 
ant-(}oyernor and Commander-in-Chief in our Province of New 
York, and in his absence to such as for the time being take care 
for i)resei'ving the peace and administering the laws." 

The second i)art of this cautious address seemed to make it 
entirely justifiable to open the letter for Avhomsoever was doing 
what those words described so fully. It can not be denied that 
the course of events had placed the cares of administration in 
the hands of Jacob Leisler; and even if the charge is true that he 
assumed all the functi(*ns of government himself, yet that none 
the less would have made the terms of the address applicable to 
him. It was certain that Francis Nicholson was " absent," and 
their majesties had shrewdly surmised that very likely there 
would be some absences from government positions in America. 

Leisler, therefore, accepted the letter as entirely applicable to 
his situati(m, and on the strength of it assunuMl " for the time be- 
ing " the title and the functions (which he had been already exer- 
cising for half a year) of Lieut enant-(TOvernor, under this qiia.si 
sanction of the king and queen. In harmony with this somewhat 
changed situation, Leisler appointed eight of the ten members 
of his Committee of Safet}^ as a provincial council, and thus was 
secured in that body that w^hich distinguished the assembly, a 
representative quality; for the councilors were not residents of 
the capital only, but hailed from Westchester, Orange, Queens, 
and Kings counties as well. 

The custom of appointing mayors and other municipal officers, 
as well as councilors of the province, had created an official 
class who took on all the airs of an aristocracy and looked with 
contempt upon the people as " a rabble." Leisler had come to 
the foreground mainly because he was a man of the people. 
Although wealthy and allied by marriage to the official class, 
he was not one of them. This explains the bitterness of the op- 



124 THE EMriRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

position wherewith he was met by those who had been ousted 
from power and position b}^ his elevation. Chief among these 
opponents was Nichohis Bayard, colonel of the militia, and mem- 
ber of Nicholson's council. After Nicholson's departure Bayard 
made himself so obnoxious that he found it safe to leave the city. 
He went to Albany, and there fomented a spirit of opposition 
to Leisler among the officials. Yet when Denonville, of Canada, 
was reported to be preparing to invade New York, an express 
was sent to Leisler asking for aid. 

Leisler dispatched Jacob ^lilborne (who was now, or later be- 
came, his son-in-law) with three sloops filled with armed men 
and ammunition. But, naturally enough, he ordered Milborne 
to give no aid to Albany unless they recognized Leisler's au- 
thority, and the forces he sent up were admitted to the fort. 
]>ayard and other escaped councilors easily i)ersuaded ^Nlayor 
Schuyler and Robert Livingston to refuse to receive Milborne 
and to acknowledge Leisler. A convention was sitting in the 
city, composed of delegates from each ward, and they were 
playing the part of the Committee of Safety at the other end 
of the Hudson, directing affairs for the king and queen in the 
absence of duly constituted magistrates. A deputation met 
Milborne and he was invited to appear before the convention, 
but the influence of Schuyler and Livingston made his arguments 
of no effect. A speech to the populace, gathered in front of the 
City Hall, met with no better success. Next a futile armed 
demonstration was made against the fort on the hill, during 
which the puzzled Indians, aware only that their beloved and 
trusted Schuyler was threatened, conceived a hatred of Milborne 
and his cause, and were ready to fight his little army. Disap- 
pointed and baflled, Milborne returned to his chief. 

Yet a little later the authorities at Albany took another view 
of the situation, and acknowl<Mlged the government as admin- 
istered by Leisler. It is possible that frightful disaster striking 
close to their doors, and threatening their own hearts and homes, 
and the undeniablv statesmanlike measure which Leisler in- 



THE KMl'IKE STATE IN THREE CENTUiaES. 125 

stitiited to meet the emerji,eiKy, tiirned the scale iu his favor. 

Schenectady, founded as we saw by Van Corlaer in lOGO, had 
grown to be at this time a vilhige of about four (u- tive hundred 
peopk'. Within tlie walls of i)alisades had been erected about 
eighty houses, and from their midst rose the church, of which 
Doniine l*eter Teschenmaker was pastor. He was the first min- 
ister of the Dutch IJeformed Church ordained to the ministry 
on American soil, this ordination having been performed by the 
onlj^ four Dutch ministers then in the country, at New York, on 
September 30, 1GT9. It was afterward ratified by the Classis 
of Amsterdam, and Mr. Teschenmaker, after serving a few other 
churches, became pastor at Schenectady in 1G82. 

The plan that had so long been i)res<mt to the mind of Cana- 
dian governors came to maturity when the liight of James to 
France made the authorities of New York Avho took part against 
him the legitimate enemies of the French crown. Now, at last, 
a supreme effort must be made to descend into NeAV York, seize 
Albany, and i)roce<Ml to the cajutal of the ])rovince at the mouth 
of the Hudson. Governor Frontenac, all during the winter of 
l()89-ir>90, was gathering forces of his own troops and Indian 
braves at Montreal. In January, IGDO, an expedition numbering 
nearly two hundred French and Indians, was sent across the 
A\ihlerness, with orders t<t fall upon Albany. After a journey 
of twenty-two days it reached the vicinity of Schenectady, and 
it was resolved to attack and destroy this place. 

It was Saturday, I^'biuary 8, 1690, when the party came 
within view of the stockade, but they concealed themselves in 
the forest until night had falh^i. Then, still Avniting till at mid- 
night the unsuspecting people were wrapped in profound slum- 
ber, they (^ntered the t(^'Wn by a gate always left open, to which 
they ^A'ere gui<h'd by some Indian women. The war whoop was 
flung out upon the clear, cold air, and tlie demoniac work of 
stealthy murder, in whi(di the French should have been ashamed 
to take a part, began. Sixty-three p.ersons were massacred, 
anions them Domine Teschenmaker, who was found with cloven 



126 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

skull and body burned to the shoulders. The church and over 
sixty of the houses were eousuuied by the Hames. Tweuty-sc^ven 
persons Avere carried into captivity. A few escaped to Albany, 
scarcely half clad, to tell the tale of woe. The people there ex- 
])ected a similar experience, but the enemy did not feel them- 
selves strong enough to attack the place, defended as it was by 
the fort. 

A thrill of horror swept through the entire province. Leisler, 
precarious as was his position, arose to the occasion. He at once 
recognized that a supreme effort must be made to rid the prov- 
ince not only, but all the colonies, of this threat of the French, 




THE ANDROS DOUBLE SEAL,. 

whose boasted chivalry did not place them above using the 
basest passions and the most cunning and treacherous modes of 
warfare, for which the savages were conspicuous. He invited 
the colonies of New England to send delegates to a congress 
to be held at New York to deliberate as to a plan for union 
against the enem^', in an attempt to conquer Canada and expel 
the French from America. Delegates came from Connecticut, 
Massachusetts, and ^Maryland, and thus with those of New York 
they constituted the first Colonial Congress ever held in America. 
Its date, May 1, 1G90, should not readily be forgotten, and the 
credit of it be given to him who has usually received more than 
his share of condemnation. 



THE EMl'lUE STATE IN TIIKEE CENTURIES. 127 

111 the meantime Leisler was not idle, A body of one hundred 
and sixty armed men was raised and sent by liini at once to re- 
enforce Albany, where his anthority was now cordially recog- 
nized. The second provincial assembly was called together, 
and, as we saw, met on April 24, that means to carry on war 
might be provided. He himself appeared at the congress as 
one of New York's representatives. It was decided what con- 
tingents each colony should furnish. Through Leisler's efforts 
five vessels were fitted out, three of which were to join a fleet 
sent out from Boston under Sir William Pliipps to enter the St. 
Lawrence and attack Quebec. A land force under General Win- 
throp was to invade Canada via Albany and the Champlain 
Valley. Nothing came of either expedition; but the fact of 
united effort and its advantages had at least received a practical 
illustration. Feebleness of resources, and a want of capacity in 
officers and men of rude pioneer colonies, easily explained the 
failure, and would only be a stimulus to advance to more favor- 
able conditions in the future. 

The remain<ler of the year 1()1)() was filled up with events in 
the career of (lovernor Leisler, which have given some counten- 
ance doubtless to the severe aspersions that have been cast upon 
his character and conduct by writers, even at the cooling distance 
of a century or two. There was much imprisoning of i^ersons 
moiH' or less prominent in the State, even one or two of the Dutch 
clergy not esca])ing such treatment. Nicholas Bayard was 
caught in New York, put in chains at the fort, condemned to 
death, but spared from execution by begging for pardon. 

It is to be said, on the other hand, that plenty of provocation 
was given by his opponents. The record of events in detail need 
not detain us, for it will be neither profitable nor edifying. The 
pit}^ of it is that the rancor between friends and neighbors in one 
small city should have been excited to so fierce a heat that only 
judicial murder could satisfy the passions at the time; and the 
embers of hatred and condemnation kept alive ready to blaze 
up for many a decade thereafter, causing a clash of parties and 



128 TtlE EMPIUE STATE IN THREE CENTUUIES. 

of classes in the commimity. AVe shall hasten on t(> the sa<l end 
of the episode that was reached in the sprinij; of H\\)l. 

Toward the close of 1G90 it became known in the province that 
Colonel Henry Sloniihter, who had been ai)pointed Governor of 
New York by William and Mary, had finally started on his 
voyage to America. The date of his commission was September 
2, 1089, but various matters had detained him in England, nota- 
bly the campaign which terminated with the battle of the Boyne, 
in Ireland, on July 12, 1690. His progress across the ocean was 
slow, and at Bermuda his ship ran on the rocks and had to stop 
for repairs. 

About the middk' of January, 1G91, Major Richard Ingoldsby 
arrived at New York with a ship that had started in company 
with Sloughter's, nnd that ciu'ried a company of regulars. It 
was known that Major Ingoldsby w^as to be the chief military 
(itticer of the province, and it was easy to persuade him, when 
Sh)ugliter's arrival was so provokingly delayed, that he was vir- 
tually lieutenant-governor. The enemies of Leisler put him for- 
ward as such, and enlisted his warmest sympathies against the 
" usurper." He was induced to demand the surrender of the 
fort and of the civil authority from Leisler, but when he was 
asked to show papers establishing his right to make such de- 
mand, he was rather nonplussed, for there were none to show. 

Leisler, therefore, refused to yield the authority which he be- 
lieved himself to hold, on the strength of the king's letter dated 
July 30, 1G89, and received on December 1 of that year. This 
gave the opposition a chance to force affairs to a dangerous 
]K»int, where Leisler might easily compromise himself fatally. 
They urged Ingoldsby to march up to the gate of the fort at the 
head of his troops and formally demand the surrender as an 
act of war. Leisler was still firm. It is said he trained the guns 
himself and discharged one or two with his own hand. A cannon 
was fired, and one or two soldiers or citizens were killed; but 
Leisler claimed it was done against his orders. 

Thus the strain continued, until on March 19 Governor Slough- 



THE E.AU'IKE STATE IN TJIUEE CENTUUIES. 129 

ler at last arrived. As soon as Leisler understood that the ac- 
credited maj^istrate liad come, he sent word i)er letter that he 
was ready to surrender the fort. But Sloughter frcnn the first 
had i»iven ear to the opposite party, and without a careful study 
of the circumstances, the discharge of cannon at the king's 
troops did have a bad look. No notice was taken of the letter, 
therefore, but an ordei' for Leisler's and Milborne's arrest issued 
and executed. The tables were now completely turned. " Bay- 
ard's chain," as some historians seem to narrate with a relish, 
was put on Leisler's leg, and we can not refrain from wishing 
that he did not have to suffer the additional agony which a 
misfit would have caused. The whole of Leisler's council were 
also arrested and imprisoned, and all these unfortunate persons 
arraigned and ])ut on trial for high treason, with the additional 
charge of murder against Leisler and Milborne for the tiring of 
those unhappy cannon. 

When it came to the trial in April, Leisler and INlilborne re- 
fused to i)lead '' until the court should decide one question — 
had or had not the king's letter to Nicholson given him au- 
thority to take upon himself the government? " Noav, whatevei- 
may be one's opinion of Leisler's conduct or personal character; 
whatever may be one's conviction as to the validity of his claim 
to the governorslii]) (I'l interim based on the letter — (me still must 
wonder why tiie court, s])(M-ially instituted for the trial, presided 
over by the (diief justice, assisted by the attorney-general and 
four si)ecial counsel, did not take up that (juestion and undertake 
to setth' it one way or the other. Can it b<* that their mere 
legal acumen, a]»art from tlw passion of the moment and the 
clamor of the dominant party, bade them perceive that they 
must answer that (piestion against that ])arty's demand for 
revenge? There arises this sinister pr«»sumption in the im])ar- 
tial mind when we learn that these legal lights refused to an- 
swer the question, and transferred it for decision to the gov- 
ernor and his council. It was a foregone conclusion that they 
would throw the letter contemptuously out of court. 



130 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 



Thereupon Leisler and Milborne refused to plead, and they 
were condemned as mutes. Death was the penalty pronounced 
upon all the priscmers, but it was commuted to imprisonment, 
soon to be ended by a release in the case of all except Leisler 
and Milborne. They appealed to the king, a right which they 
undoubtedly possessed. Therefore suspicions of foul and blood- 
thirsty intentions again arise in the impartial niin<l when it 
learns that the authorities permitted themselves to become 
guilty of the unpardonable cruelty and injustice of refusing to 
send the appeal to England. It needs not the story of the ban- 
quet, and the plying of the liquor-loving Sloughter with intoxi- 
cants until he did not know what 
he was doing, when Bayard and 
the others placed the death war- 
rant before him to be signed. We 
may accept this as a slander from 
the Leisler party. But it is not 
needed to make out a most se- 
rious case against the dominant 
and official party, after the ])lain 
facts that lie on the surface of all 
these transactions. 

The execution was set for Sat- 
urday, May IT, 1691. A scaffold 
was put up where Printing 
House Square is now, opposite the building now occui)ied by the 
New York Hun. This was a locality very far removed from the 
habited town at that date, and we may wonder somewhat why 
it was selecte<l. It was upon, or in the immediate vicinity, of 
property belonging to Leisler, and a street running through the 
tract now is still called Frankfort Street, after Leisler's birth- 
place. The morning proved cold and disagreeable, with a north- 
east storm of rain. Leisler addressed the people who had come 
to witness the sad spectacle, expressed himself innocent of 




CiS-^ 



ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 131 

political crime, while confessing the sins and errors common 
to humanity and forgiving all his enemies. 

Thns he and Milborne paid the penalty- of death for high 
treason; and it must appear to every dispassionate stu(hmt of 
the situation that the extremity to which this quarrel was carried 
was unnecessary. It would have been better if New York had 
" been spared the stain of cruelty and of the sacrifice from politi- 
cal malice of two brave and active lives," thus speaks a writer 
who otherwise condemns Leisler as a usurper and a rebel. And 
still opinion is divided as to the man and his cause. On the one 
side we still read vituperation as hot as that which tilled the 
mouths of his enemies on the day he died. On the other, admira- 
tion voices itself in the words of Benjamin F. Lossing, when he 
says, making a somewhat large claim : " Calm and impartial 
judgment, enlightened by truth, now assigns to Jacob Leisler 
the high position in history of a patriot and a inartifr.'" 

Little is to be said of the remaining days of Sloughter's ad- 
ministration, for it was exceedingly brief. He was directed by 
the instructions of William and Mary to restore as soon as pos- 
sible the ])0])ular assembly first granted and then abolished by 
James 11. A\'rits were therefore issued at cmce for the election 
of delegates in the several counties, to meet in New York on 
April 0, 1(11)1. On that date seventeen good men and true, all the 
way from Albany, and Kichmond, and Suffolk, and the other 
counties, came together as the fourth General Assembly. There 
was no spleiKlid ])alace to receive them, nor were they now ac- 
commodated at the governor's mansion. They met at a tavern, 
unless the muse blunders here and forgets that the City Hall 
of New York was once a tavern, and has got the Iavo facts 
mixed up. To supervise (U' counteract their legislation there 
was the Provincial Council, made up of twelve men, not one 
of whom seems to have belonged to any other county than New 
York. A new seal Avas also sent over for the province, represent- 
ing William and ^lary, with an Indian man and woman kneeling 
at their feet and ofl'ering tribute of wam])um and beaver skins. 



132 THE EMPIUE STATE IN TIIllEE CENTURIES. 

The Assembly elected James Graham, of New York City and 
coiiiity, speaker. It did not eiieoiiiiter a sympathetic governor, 
whatever might now be the attitude of the sovereigns at whose 
oAvn instance it had been rehabilitated. A resolution which was 
passed, quite in the spirit which had prevailed in England and 
which had made the revolution possible, declaring that popular 
representation in the legislation of the province was a right and 
not a privilege — ^was incontinently vetoed by Sloughter. The 
Assembly remained in session until nearly the close of May, or 
not quite six weeks, and fourteen bills were passed, which be- 
came laws. One of these created a supreme court for the prov- 
ince, composed of a chief justice, a second justice, and three 
associate justices. Joseph Dudle^^ was appointed chief justice 
by the governor. The Assembly also re-enacted the previous 
" Charter of Liberties," but Avorship according to the liomish 
religion was now prohibited, and the Test Act was applied to 
persons holding office. 

The little community of the capital was greatly startled on 
July 23, 1691, to learn that Oovernor Sloughter had been sud- 
denly taken ill, and had died within a few hours. At once 
conjecture was busy as to the probable cause, and i)arty feeling 
prompted suspicions and made ready belief of various accounts. 
It Avas natural that the partisans of Leisler, Avho was dead but 
two months and a few days, should ascribe the man's death to 
remorse, Avhich had led to too excessive an indulgence in the cup. 
The aristocratic party discovered a negro (either imaginary or 
real) who had ]»lac(-d ])(>ison in his coffee at the instigation, 
of course, of the Leislerians. Investigation by autopsy proved 
he had died from natural causes, which has not prevented his- 
torians from assigning among these (IvUrUun firinciis, Avhich 
Avould surely have argued no great excellence of lu'ivate char- 
acter. The governor Avas buried at the expense of the province, 
and the Stuyvesant family permitted the remains to be deposited 
in their vault, by the side of those of the last Dutch director. 

The last honors done, on July 30 the Council of the Province 



THE EAiriKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



133 



met, and called before it Major In^oldsby. Being- requested to 
read his commission from the king, it was ascertained that in 
case of the death of Governor Sloni>hter, th(^ major was to act as 
comnian(Un'-in-cliief of the military. This was interpreted as 
sufficient warrant for investing him with the duties of actini; 
governor, and as such he took the oath of office. It was thirteen 
months bef(n'e his successor arrived in the province. The assem- 
bly met again in l()i)2, and during tliat year Major Ingoldsby 
was summoned to Albany by llie tlireat of another invasion from 
Canada. Nothing came of it, howevei', and it scn-ved only as an 
opportunity for renewing pledges of alliance with the Iroquois. 




CLliNTUN AKMa. 




CHAPTER Y. 

THE ROUNDING OUT OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 

T is somewhat hard to iin<lorstaiid what induced the 
occupants of the British throne, at times, to phice the 
duty and responsibility of governing New York on 
certain individuals. The choice of Colonel Sloughter 
b}^ a man of such shrewdness and knowledge of men as William 
111. Svas certainly not a happy one. It may have been in the 
thought of Major Ingoldsby, as well as in that of the council who 
made him acting governor, that the king might put him in office 
permanently. And there is every reason to think Ingoldsby 
would have done very well. But there came no confirmation of 
the council's appointment. On the contrary, it was learned that 
the king had appointed Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, and the im- 
partial verdict of history must be that the king might have made 
a much better choice. 

The historians of New York City and State are in despair about 
the paucity of biographical details that have been gleane<l about 
this governor. Brodhead, the patient collector and student of 
original " Documents relating to the Colonial History of the 
State of New York "' (published in several ponderous quartos), 
thinks he has traced his birthplace to Cheshire, England; but 
Todd has looked through its county history and says it " is silent 
concerning him." De Peyster throws a little light upon his 
previous career, but in decidedly vague terms : " Having been an 
active propagandist of Englishism and Protestantism in Ireland, 
he was rewarded with an estate in that country." 



THE e:\ipiue state in tiiuee centuries. 



13^ 



He was a soldier, " educated in the camp,'' as lie liiiiiself once 
slated. As a soldier he may have had part of that education 
in that land fruitful of battlefields, the low countries, that is, 
Bcdoium and Holland, and therefore under William 111. Service 
there and in Ireland would entitle him to reward at this junc- 
ture, and exphiins his appointment. His jurisdiction was to 
extend over Penns^ylvania and Delaware, as well as New York, 
and his salary was fixed at the not inconsiderable sum of seven 
hundred and eiolity pounds. 

lie arrived at his ca])ital on Monday, Aui>ust 29, 1092; was 
received with due ceremony, and read his commission to the 
people assembled before the City 
Hall on Coenties Slip. His coun- 
cil was named in the document 
which constituted his instruc- 
tions. They were fifteen in num- 
ber, and the spelling of the Dutch 
names was a little queer. Flyp- 
son, standing for Filipse; Cort- 
landt, shorn of its Van, and 
Schuler doing duty for Schuyler. 
Fletcher was armed with secret 
and open instructions both, the 

former even to be kept from his council if he saw fit. They re- 
lated to the policy he was to pursue in regard to appointment of 
officers and the removal of councilmen. There were special direc- 
tions as to his own powers and privileges and the encouragement 
of religion of the approved type. The open instructions were to be 
read with his commission, and referred to very much the same 
topics in a more general w ay. 

The Assembly that came together after Fletcher's assump- 
tion of the governorship was largely composed of members who 
had been carried in on the tide of a popular reaction against 
Leisler. His later acts, as was said before, had been character- 
ized by too much asperity as the result of the exasperating oppo- 




CORNELIUS STEENWYCK's HOUSE. 



136 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

sitioii which <()iistantly assailed him. In the rural districts, es- 
pecially in (Queens and Suffolk counties, Leisler had excited much 
bad blood against himself, and up the river and in Albany he 
had neyer been precisely popular. The reyengeful execution had 
not jet had time to create a reaction in his fayor. Yet, none the 
less, " aristocratic '' as mioht be their leanings, the Assembly 
were not untrue to the fact that they were " The People "" by 
representation. The goyernor, though avowedly a partisan 
against Leisler and his following, did not find them in the least 
pliable. Bills which di<l not meet with his approval they might 
be helpless in establishing as laws, but in turn bills which came 
down to them from him or the council they insisted on amending 
to suit themselves; while Fletcher w^rote in despair: "There 
never was an amendment desired by the council board but wdiat 
it was rejected. It is a sign of stubborn ill t<Mnper." 

The advantage of a representative body enforcing the wishes 
and guarding the interests of the people of every section of the 
State, over a council appointed from men whose interests were 
wrapped up with those of one city only, was illustrated by the 
action taken by the Assembly in regard to New York City's 
bolting monopoly. We have mentioned its introduction under 
Andros in 1G78. In Dongan's time there was added to it the 
monopoh^ of baking. By virtue of this all the grain raised in 
the province had to be taken to New York to be bolted, or made 
into flour, before it could be exported as such; and likewise all 
Hie bread sent abroad must be baked in the city. It rested as a 
grievous disadvantage upon the towns in the vicinity, but until 
the Assembly became an effective power for making the will 
of the people operative, the burden had to be endured. In 1004 
the opponents of the monopoly succeeded in obtaining a majority, 
and the privilege was abolished. Naturally the city authorities 
rose up in arms, and they made an interesting showing of what 
■the monopoly had done for the town, in an address to the gov- 
ernor in IfiOfi, begging for its restoration: "When the bolting 
began in 1078 there were cmly 313 houses; in 1G96 there are 591. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TliKEE CENTURIES. 137 

The revenue in 1(178, 1G79, and 16S0 did not exceed £2,000; in 
the year 1GS7 it was £5,000. In 1087 there were three ships, 
seven boats, eight sloops; in 1094 there were sixty ships, forty 
bouts, and sixty-two sloops; since which is a decrease. In 1687 
New York killed 400 beeves; in 1094 near 4,000. Lands have ad- 
vanced tenfold in value. If this act continues, many families in 
New York must perish." The Assembly, actin.^ for a wider ter- 
ritory and population than a sin<;le city, determined that the 
Act of 1()94, abolishing the monopoly, should continue. It was 
too bad about the " peiishing " New York families; but those 
who benefit by the unnatural stimulus of industry or trade are 
always exposed to this danger; yet the continuance of unnatural 
conditions is bound to be so much more hurtful to the larger num- 
ber, that statesmanship had better brave the distress of the 
few, which is only temporary, and lay secure foundations for the 
future. It is gratifying to learn that the Assembly, though yet 
in its infancy, had learned already this lesson in statecraft. 

It stood as a bulwark against another un-American institu- 
tion — a State church. Fletcher was very anxious to plant the 
Anglican Establishment upon the soil of his government. At 
the very first session of the Assembly after his arrival, he sent 
in a recommendation to provide a settlement for ministers by 
public act. It was not a subject that met with a cordial response 
from the preponderating element of Dutchmen, from most of the 
counties, or from the Puritan elements from Suffolk and Queens 
on Long Island. The recommendation was simply ignored, for 
they were aware that the ministers to be " settled '' would be 
those to whom the term could only apply in terms of English 
law, that is, the Episcopal clergy. In a second appeal that fact 
stood out very clearly, embodied in a sharj) fling at their boasted 
liberty-loving spirit : " You are all big with the privileges of 
Englishmen and Magna Charter, which is your right, but the 
same law provides for the religion of the church of England," 

The matter was taken up at the next Assembl}^ which met in 
September, 1G93. Its composition may have been different, or 



138 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

an escape was contemplated by the use of very general terms. 
A " Settling Act " was passed providing for the building of one 
church in Ncav York City, two in Westchester County, two in 
Suffolk County, aud oue in Richmond County, or Staten Island, 
lu each of these '' a Protestant minister " was to be settled, the 
salary to be anywhere from forty to one hundred pounds, to be 
raised by a tax levied on the Freeholders of all faitlij*. 

The loophole that was left open in this act was made apparent 
by a formal resolution of the Asseuibly stating " that the vestry- 
men and church wardens have power to call a dissenting Prot- 
estant minister, and that he is to be maintained as the act 
directs." There was also a stretching of the meaning of vestry- 
men and wardens, so that they covered officers of churches 
usually designated by other names. Practically in comuiuuities 
Avhere some other denomination predominated, the act was made 
to serve its ends, although in some places those who had built 
up flourishing enterprises sometimes came to grief, as we shall 
see. The Dutch Church of New York did not trust to such a pre- 
carious chance. Ingeniously pleadiug the privileges of the act, 
and by a judicious present of plate to the governor, the church 
officers procured a charter for their corp<u'ation on May 11, 1(J9(>, 
whereby they could maintain themselves by compulsory church 
rates, and the call of ministers, with Avliich no magistrate, how- 
ever desirous of troubling them, could interfere. 

Fletcher's name is linked with one event that has served to 
make it imuiortal. Under Governor Dougan, as we saw, Janu's 
II. prohibited the introduction of that enginery of sedition — the 
priutiug press. The other colonies were in advance of New York 
in regard to this iustitutiou. As early as 1043 it was already in 
New England, and d(»ing its iuevitable work of exasperating au- 
thorities, for in that year Stephen Daye, Massachusetts's first 
printer, w^as put under bonds to the amount of £100 to uuike hiui 
and his types behave themselves. In Y^irginia the press had 
been introduced, and earned for itself the distinction of being 
suppressed in 1082, aud when the printer went to Maryland the 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



139 



same fortune met him there. There was no need to suppress or 
banish printers in New York, for tliere were none before King 
William's time. 

When printing came, it came to sta,y, and Fletcher has the 
credit of introducing it. When he went to Philadelphia to attend 
to the duties belonging to his office as governor of Pennsylvania, 
he found that among these was that of presiding at the trial of 
a printer by the name of William Bradford, who had printed 
something that gave oifense to the orthodox (Quakers. It was 
with Quakers as with other religionists when in power — liberty 
of thought, only meant liberty to 
think as those did who had the 
power to punish j) e o p 1 e w h o 
thought differently. In Massachu- 
setts the Quakers did not have lib- 
erty of thought. In Philadelphia 
those who varied from the Quakers 
were made to feel uncomfortable, 
although not to the extent of having 
ears cropped or tongues slit, as the ^4'^ 
(Quakers had found in New Eng- ^^^ 
land. Bradford was acquitted at 
the trial, but a change of residence 
became eminently desirable, and he 
contemplated returning to Eng- 
land. Fletcher saw a chance to procure a valuable accession for 
his province of New York. On March 23, 1G93, the Provincial 
Council, at his instance, resolved " That if a Printer will come 
and settle in the City of New Yorke for the Printing of our Acts 
of Assembly and Publick Papers, he shall be allowed the sum 
of £40 current money of New Yorke per annum for his salary, 
and have the benefit of his printing, besides what serves the pub- 
lick." 

This was doing better than Virginia had done in 1682. Nor 
was it likely to be against the wishes of James II. 's successor, in 




CORNELIUS STEENWYCK. 



140 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

whose native coiuitrv of Holland it was wont to " snow " pam- 
phlets on every public question. William Bradford accepted 
this offer. On April 10, KJDo, he was already at work in New 
York, havini>- set up his press within a short distance of the 
City Hall, where, at 81 Pearl Street to-day, the historical pilgrim 
from every part of the State may read the record on a bronze 
tablet. I>y the act of council and payment of the salary for 
printing the acts <>r laws of the province, Bradford was con- 
stituted a government printer, and New York was the first of the 
colonies to create and maintain such an office. 

William and .Alary's accession to the throne which their father 
had vacated, brought on a war with France, to whose protection 
James ha<l fled. It is the one called "■ King William's War " in 
America, and lasted until the Peace of IJyswick, in 1(597, when 
l'''rance was compelled to acknowledge William and ^lary and to 
abandon James's cause. Nothing suited the men of Canada 
better than this hostile attitude between England and France 
at home. It gave them a freer hand in the warlike expeditions 
they were constantly organizing against the frontiers of New 
England and New York, even in times of peace. And winter 
seems to have been their favorite time for letting slip the dogs 
of war. It was in February, 1G90, that Schenectady had been 
attacked. In February, 1693, on the very anniversary of the 
previous horror, five hundred and fifty French and Indians ap- 
proached within twenty miles of the place again. Here they con- 
structed a fortified camp, intending to make it ih<^ base of 
operations against the settlements on the upper Hudson. 

News of the impending disaster w\as sent by express to the 
governor at New York, where it reached him on February 12. 
He acted with the promptness of a good soldier. Orders were 
sent to the militia of Kings and Queens counties to have one 
hundred and fifty men at the ferry to New York the next morn- 
ing. At eight o'clock on the morning of February 13, the city 
militia were drawn up before the governor. He asked for volun- 
teers to go up the river, and evei'v man responded. One hundred 




M®IEiaA23" laswT: 




^^c^n--^:/^^^-U7-zyf^ 



THE EMTJUE STATE IN TllKEE CENTURIES. 141 

and fifty were selected. At ten o'clock an express was already 
on the way to Colonel Beeckman, conmiander of the Ulster 
County^ militia, to have horses ready to carry the i^overnor and 
his little army from Kingston to Albany over land, as the river 
was full of ice. 

Ere the start was made on the 14th, another express arrived 
from the north confirminii; the first news, and adding that two 
of the '' castles " of the Mohawks had alrea<ly b(HMi taken by the 
enemy. This only hastened the expedition, and by a supreme 
effort it reached Albany at nine in the morning of February 17. 
No time was lost. Mayor Schuyler, a major of militia, was sent 
forward to Schenectady with fifty of his own men, and after a 
needed rest of only two hours Fletcher with sixteen horsemen 
followed, ordering Colonel Bayard to c(>me after him as fast as 
possible with the renminder of the force. On reaching Schenec- 
tady Fletcher learned that Schuyler had gone ahead into the 
wilderness with his fifty men, attended by a host of the Iroquois, 
whose idol he was, and the next day the new^s came that the 
major had defeated the enemy and driven him from his fortified 
camp. There was nothing further to do, therefore, and P^letcher 
returned with his army to Albany, where he was congratulated 
on the success of his expedition, and thanked for the promptness 
of the succor he brought. 

The French must liave been thoroughly routed, the Iroquois 
doubth^ss doing very effective damage to the enemy when once 
they had turned about and fied. No serious renewal of hostilities 
was attempted by the enemy until 169C. Then, in the summer 
time, Governor Froiitenac, having gathered a large army at 
^lontreal, comi)os(Ml of regulars and militia, and a horde of 
Canadian savages, directed in person an expedition into the 
heart of the country of the Five Nations. The blow was aimed 
at the very center of the " Long House.'" Ascending the St. Law- 
rence in boats and canoes, they crossed Lake Ontario, or probably 
coasted along the shore, until they reached the mouth of the 
Oswego Kiver. Thev ascended this stream, carried the boats 



142 THE EMI'IKE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 

and barks around its falls, and so arrived at Ouonda«>a Lake. 

The Ononda^as were ])repared. They had sent their wives and 
children away, and had determined to make a stand at the for- 
titiVd "castle" on. the shore of the lake. But when they dis- 
covered the overwhelm ini*' force of the enemy, they adopted I 
Avilier tactics. They burned village and castle both, and retired 
within the forest. Count Frontenac and his army found nothing 
to oppose them, except an Onondaga sachem over one hundred 
years old, Avhose age should have been his defense, but to 
Frontenac's eternal shame he allowed his Indian allies to torture 
the venerable patriarc h. Such a force, heterogeneous as it Avas, 
could not be kept idle in the wilderness with very little sus- 
tenance to be obtained, and so the French governor, who is said 
to have been carried about in an armchair on this foray, was fain 
to order the march back to Canada. 

The Iroquois were not far off, and the return march was made 
disastrous for the French by their skillful tactics against the 
retreating army. The expense of the expedition and the retalia- 
tory incursions of the Five Nations reduced Canada to the verge 
of famine. Only occasional scalping parties ventured into New 
York after this, until the Peace of liysAvyck in 101)7 caused a 
cessation of hostilities. 

Before Governor I'letcher returned to New" York, after his 
prompt supply of aid against the French in 1693, a grand council 
of the Iroquois League was called at Albany. Fletcher was at- 
tendiHl by magistral (^s and officers, and he made a speech in reply 
to the expressions of thanks on the part of the Indians. As a 
c()m]»lim(>nt to his ]-a])id movement to relieve that section of the 
colony and the Indian allies, they bestowed a title upon him in 
their i)icturesque ACH'nacular, signifying the " Very Swift 
Arrow\" (Toing uj) again in the summer he held a conference 
with them, lasting from June 23 to July G, firmly cementing the 
alliance. 

In the administration of civil affairs, Fletcher's conduct was 
not as commendable. As the vears w^ent on serious charaes were 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



143 



preferred against him at court, until finally, in 1697, he was re- 
called, and a successor sent over for the avowed purpose of prob- 
ing the abuses to the bottom, and remedying the evils they had 
produced. Thus Fletcher passed off the stage of New York 
history, and obscurity at once swallows up his subsequent career, 
as it had overshadowed his previous history. 

The man chosen to succeed him was Ivichard Coote, Earl of 
Bellomont, an Irish peer. He was so stanch a Protestant that 
he left England for the Continent on the accession of James II. 
He was then Baron Coote, of Colooney, having been raised to the 
peerage in consideration of services connected with the restora- 
tion of Charles II. 
to the throne. He 
was one of the 
foremost in the 
movement to in- 
vite William of 
Orange to Eng- 
land, and in put- 
t i 11 g h i 111 a n d 
M a r y on the 
throne. The brief 
period that James 

succeeded in setting up a parliament in Ireland was signalized 
among other things by the confiscation of the Barony of Coloo- 
ney. William III. had already rewarded Baron Coote by mak- 
ing him treasurer and receiver-general to the queen. The act 
of the Jacobites only resulted in a still more distinguished re- 
ward. Richard Coote was made Earl of Bellomont. 

It was a great compliment to the province of New York that 
a person of such rank should now be appointed its governor. 
No governor before him had been of such exalted station. There 
were knights or baronets, and barons subsequently sent over, 
and an earl only once again. The king was making up for a 
Sloughter and Fletcher, and it was high time. Lord Bellomont 




THE STRAND, NOW WHITEHALL STREET, NEW YORK. 



144 THE EMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTUmES. 

was sixty-two years of aiix-, but still of vii»oroiis appearance, large 
of frame, tall auil (lijj,uitie(l. But he was a victim of the i>()ut. lie 
brought his couutess with him, Avho was very much younger than 
himself, and the gossips tell curious stories, contradicted by more 
serious historians, about her ga}- habits and the jealousy of her 
husband. 

The earl's commission was dated June 18, H}\)1. As so often 
happened, there was a long interval between this and that of 
his arrival in the col<»ny, which did not occur until April 2, 1G98. 
I^)ui' barrels of guni)owder were reduced to smoke, and gave 
forth their latent tliunder to welcome the earl and his lady. 
At the corp(U'ation dinner Mayor De Peyster presided, and 
covers were laid for one hundred and fifty guests, history gravely 
recording that they feasted upon " venison, turkey, chicken, 
goose, pigeon, duck, and other game; mutton, beef, lamb, veal, 
pork, sausages, with pastry, puddings, cakes, and the choicest of 
wines." The commission extended his jurisdiction over Massa- 
chusetts and New Hampshire, as well as over New York. At the 
beginning he retained the council of his predecessor, of whom 
five, Philipse, Van Cortlandt, Bayard, Nicolls, and Minvielle, 
had been on Sloughter's council which voted for the execution of 
Leisler. 

This was a significant circumstance, and much in favor of the 
sincerity and ini]>art iality of his convictions regarding that un- 
fortunate event. In 1(51)5 Leisler's son and Abraham Gouverneur, 
who had been one of the convicted but pardoned council, having 
escaped to England, had succeeded in securing a parliamentary 
investigation into the merits of the affair. Lord Bellomont was 
a member of the committee charged with that work. The bill 
they introduced reversed the attainder in full and condemned 
the execution. The earl spoke strongly in its defense, and de- 
clared that he was led to his convictions in no other way than 
by the stud^' of the facts. It was, therefore, perfectly well known 
how he felt on the question that was still burning in many hearts 
and was destined to divide parties for many a day. Later, also, 



THE EMl'IUE STATE IX TllUEE ("EXTriUES. 145 

he found it uecessary to leiiiove tlie violcut aiiti-LcislcriuDs from 
his council, substitiitiiif; Abraluun Dc I'cystcr and liobci't Living- 
ston, among others. 

Livingston had been strongly antagonistic to Leisler, as we 
saM'. But going to England to i»usli some claims for moneys ad- 
vanced to the government, and to press the charges against 
Fletcher, he had become intimate with Lord Bellomont, whoso 
mind had now been made up as to the Leisler episode; and the 
genial Livingston, Avhose special faculty was "acquisitiveness" 
and not " i)olitics,"' had no difficulty in trimming his sails to the 
new direction of opinion as to the treatment of his former ene- 
mies. Milborne, at the moment of execution, had shouted to Liv- 
ingston in the crowd : " I implead thee at the bar of (Jod for 
this! " deeming him so largely responsible for the tragedy of that 
day, Tossibly i)ity and i-eniorse had had something to do with 
the new councilor's change of attitude. 

The changes in the council having been made, the governor 
l)roceeded to carry out an important part of his instructions. In 
the first i)lace the confiscated })roperty of Leisler and Milborne 
was restored to their widows and children, as ordered by the 
Act of l*arliament of l(>i)5. Abuse of Bellomont for ordering 
the purchasers to restore tlu^ estate, is irrelevant. Even in 
1092 (2ueen Mary, in council, had ordered the restoration of the 
property. After that no one could have been sure of the title, 
jnid the Act of Parliament was now three years (dd. This act 
of justice was followed in October by the complete rehabilitation 
of the name and reputation of the deceased. Their bodies had 
been rudely thrust, even uncoftined, into a grave near by the 
place of execution. Abraham (Jouvern(mr, who had married 
^Milborne's Avidow. and llobert ^Valt(M•s, ^^ho had married Leis- 
ler's other daughter, asked that their remains might be removed 
from this place of shame. The re<]uest was granted, and Bello- 
mont resolved that nothing should be wanting to compensate 
for the former indignities. It was arranged that the disinter- 
nu'ut should occur at midnight. 



14G THE EMPIUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Curiously cuougb, as at the executiou, there was a severe 
storm of wiud and raiu. Nevertheless, twelve hundred people 
attended the weird occasion. A guard of honor of one hundred 
soldiers had been sent by the governor, and with beat of muffled 
drum and lighted by torches, the procession wended its way from 
rrinting-house Square down to the City Hall at Coenties Slip. 
Mere the remains lay in state for some days, although we can 
hardly snpjxjsc the poor fragments were exposed to the public 
gaze. Then they were deposited in a crypt, or in graves, under 
the floor of the new Dutch Church in Garden Street, now Ex- 
change Place. " So ended," remarks Dr. A. G. Yermilye, a de- 
scendant from one of Leisler's council; "so ended, without any 
breach of the peace, this act of late justice; but without the re- 
laxing of a muscle of that implacable hate among the old leaders 
and so much of the opposite faction, which had pursued the 
memory of these two men and pursued their adherents since 
1G91." 

One of the serious charges against Governor Fletcher had been 
that he had not only not sufficiently discouraged or suppressed 
the prevailing piracy of the day, but that he had accepted bribes 
from captains or owners of ships to keep his ej'es closed as to 
the real character of the business they were engaged in. The 
chronic condition of warfare between the Christian nations of 
that day induced the fitting out of armed ships as privateers; 
and the practice easily led to the crossing of the almost invisible 
line between privateering and piracy. Hence this period had be- 
come the heyday of the buccaneering fraternity. 

This business involved the most respectable citizens of tlie 
colonies. Their ships were found to bring very much quicker 
and larger i-eturns on investment than the ordinary processes 
of commerce, when, with a little additional cost, they were armed 
and manned as jn-ivateers. And if the same returns continued 
when there happened to be a lull in war, or if sliii)s had been 
overhauled without too close a regard to the fiag they carried, 
who were the wiser for it, when the heroes and their plunder ar- 



THE EMl'IKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



147 



rived in port? Or the thing- was done in this wa}^ : The piracy 
of the Indian Ocean was notorious, and on certain islands in that 
sea the gentlemen of the Black Flag had depots where they 
would exchange rich stuffs of the Orient for more prosaic com- 
modities of the West in the way of wines, li<iuors, and.shipping 
stores. 

New York merchants were naturally temi)ted to send pipes of 
Madeira, or kegs of rum, and other articles not so high priced 
to ]\Iadagascar and other far away islands around the Cape of 
Good Hope, when the percentage of profit ran up into the hun- 
dreds or the thousands. It was 
quite as bad to engage in this 
collusion with pirates, and buy 
their stolen goods, as to do the 
business in a more direct way; 
but if inquiries were not too 
stringently pushed, again no- 
body was the wiser, and wealth 
accumulated in the pockets of 
citizens and officials. Fletcher, 
like one or tw^o governors of 
other colonies, had not hovu 
quite free from connivance 
with these practices, and Bello- 
mont's main mission was to 
stop them. 

Yet he himself came near being compromised in the matter, 
(MH.'ugh so at least to give his enemies a chance to annoy him. 
Everyone has heard of Captain Kidd; people indeed have hardly 
yet got through looking for his hidden treasures along the shores 
of Long Island and Connecticut, and he stands forth before the 
imagination as a prince among pirates. Yet he did not start out 
to be such. He was a respectable captain of a merchant ship; 
a friend of Robert Livingston. Perhaps the shrewd acquisitive 
lord of the manor knew more of him than others, but as such he 




PR. GERARDUS BEEKMAN. 



MS THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

recommended him to the king and to Lord Bellomont. Living- 
ston himself, with His Majesty and the earl and one or two more 
exalted personages, contributed a large sum of money wherewith 
they procured and equipped a g(t<>dly ship, which they placed 
under C'aptain Kidd's charge, and wherewith he was to scoui- 
the seas in search of pirates. The treasures likely to be secured 
by hunting these devils to their lairs would pay for the invest- 
ment, with a handsome profit thereon. 

In October, KJOG, Captain Kidd started on his laudable mission. 
lie failed to find any pirates for a whole year, and then Captain 
Kidd ceased to be found himself. But gradually certain bold 
acts of piracy were traced to Captain Kidd. In June, 1G99, he 
came to the surface again; he would claim that the vessels he 
had been accused of taking were legitimate prey: pirates he was 
sent to catch, or I'rench ships. He put into Delaware Bay, then 
appeared next at Oyster Bay on Long Island, at Block Island, 
at Gardiner's Island, where he buried a part of his treasure. 
Hearing that Bellomont was now governor in these parts, he 
sent a message to him at Boston. It augured well, it seemed 
to him, that one of the partners in the virtuous compact under 
which he went out, was like to be his judge. Bellomont sent 
word l)ack that if what he had told him was the truth he might 
come to Boston. He went, but could neither prove his innocence 
nor bribe the governor to release him by revealing the place of 
the hidden treasure. Bellomont sent Kidd to England, where 
he was hanged in 1701. 

The other serious charge against Fletcher Avas excessive 
grants of land to a few individuals. Among his o]ten instructi(»ns 
was one giving him permission to dispose of such " lands, tene- 
ments, and hereditaments " as were within the king's power to 
bestow, and, with the consent of council, he might grant these 
'' to any Person or Persons for such term, and under such mod- 
erate Quitt Bent services and acknowledgments to be thereupon 
reserved unto us, as you by and with the advice aforesaid shall 
think fitt." Fletcher seized upon this item and made it work 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 149 

to the full extent of the advantages it eonld bring. Soon about 
ten or twelve of bis favorites possessed about tliree-fourtlis of tbe 
available lands of the province, including some of the hunting 
grounds of the INIohawks. A few details will furnish interesting 
information to residents in various parts of the State. 

Colonel Niidiolas Bayard paid the governor one hundred and 
tiftv pounds (sa}' 1750) for a tract some thirty miles in length, 
but not otherwise i)recis(dy <lelimited, on both sides of the Scho- 
harie Creek, covering portions of the present Montgomery and 
Schoharie counties. Colonel Henry Beekman, for about fifty 
pounds, received a grant of sixteen miles square in Dutchess 
Count^^, and one resting for eight miles on the Ihnlson and reach- 
ing twenty miles back to Connecticut. A Captain Evans, of one 
of His Majesty's frigates, on duty at the station to watch smug- 
glers whom he did not watch, becanu^ i)ro])riet(»r of territory 
twenty miles in breadth by forty in length, in(du<ling the south- 
ern part of Ulster County, two-thirds of Orange County, and part 
of Haverstraw, now in Rockland County. Colonel William 
Smith obtained fifty miles of Long Island, then, in 1093, recently 
denominatcMl " Nassau." It simply gathered up in one lump 
all the lands on the island not formerly " patented " away. 

Peter Schuyler, Doniine Dellius, and three other partners, ob- 
tained a grant of fifty miles of land on the Mohawk River, reach- 
ing from the present Amsterdam to West Canada Creek, in Her- 
kimer County. Then Domine Dellius went on an<l bought some 
more land on the east side of the Hudson, twelve miles wide and 
seventy miles long, covering AYashington County and reacdiing 
to Vermont. Even at that time, unimproved as the land was, 
these tracts were known to be worth anywhere from five to 
twenty-five thousand pounds. Most of them i)ai(l about fifty 
pounds. As soon as Peter Schuyler and Major Wessels, of the 
company of five, understood what 1liis thing really meant, they 
resigned their shares. The others of all those mentioned held on 
to theirs. Under the instructions given to Lord Bellomont, and 
bv Act of the Asscmblv, these grants were vacated and made 



150 THE EMPIRE STATE IN TilKEE CENTURIES. 

void. It did not improve the temper of these influential benefi- 
ciaries against him. As lie at the same time stopped with a vig- 
orous hand the '' abuses of trade," that is, smuggling, which gave 
the death blow to privateering or piracy, he dreAV down on him 
llie wrath of the merchants also. 

The first Assembly under Bellomont was not a happy produc- 
tion. As early as this period in the history of popular elections, 
intimidation Avas already known. Fletcher had been charged 
witli sending soldiers to the polls; Bellomont refused to do any- 
thing to interfere, altliough it was Ivuown a desperate effort 
would be made to in-event a fair vote, for fear the Leisler party 
might return a majority. Tavo men were returned from Orange 
County, although the sheriff confessed he had not allowed any 
election to take ])lac('. Other counties sent members whose elec- 
tion was eijually disputable; yet these doubtful delegates were 
seated, and refused admittance to two indisputably returned. 
Not much good could be expected from such a gathering, and 
the governor soon prorogued it. The next Assembly was called 
for ^larcli, lODJ), and the election being now better conducted, 
no disputed members took their seats. 

Both parties made Herculean efforts to influence the rural 
voters. IMattheAv Nicolls, once speaker, stumped the counties 
against the Leislerians, and thus also against the governor, 
(xouverneur and Walters, sons-in-law of Leisler, were just as 
energetic on the other side. It was no easy work in those days. 
No dining and sleeping in Pullmans or Wagners, with speeches 
from rear platforms. Nicolls Avas fain often to creep under a 
haystack for an abode during the winter's night; and Walters 
twice swam a stream, sAvollen beyond its bounds by choking 
ice-jams. The result Avas a Leislerian majority; out of twenty-one 
members they could count on sixteen. The way to the restora- 
tion of Leisler's reputation and estate was easy under these 
circumstances; tlio vacating of the grants and the carrying out 
of others of Bcllomont's instructions Avere likewise accomplished 
bv this Assemblv. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



151 



Like fornior governors, Bellomont took care to cultivate 
friendly relations with the Iroquois. At the end of the war, he 
sent Schuyler and Dellius to Canada to negotiate for an exchange 
of prisoners, and when Frontenac refused to consider his Indian 
captives as prisoners of war, Bellomont announced to him : "■ If 
it is necessary I will arm every man in the ])rovinces to redress 
the injury you may perpetrate against our Indians. I will not 




THE CITY HALL AND GREAT DOCK, NEW YORK, 1679. 



suffer them to be insulted." While in agonies from a fit of the 
gout, he went up to Albany to enforce his threat, and to meet 
the Iroquois people. During his administration an immense 
tract of their land was given to the British crown, so as to secure 
its protection, while the king granted twenty-five hundred pounds 
for strengthening the forts at Albany and Schenectady, and to 



152 THE E.MriiiE state in three centuries. 

build a new one in the country of the Onondagas, the central 
of the I'ive Nations. 

Embittered ])artisans, disappointed huid-grabbers, merchants 
whose ]>r(»tits were cut (h>wii by th(> stopjung of smuggling and 
piracy, constituted a formidable host of antagonists. It was vain 
trying to poison the mind of tlie king against the governor; but 
still the rudeness and unscrui)ulousuess of political opposition 
in those days found sufficient means for making life miserable. 
Rellomont's age was against him, and the tax on his nerves did 
not improve the gout. A peculiarly severe attack prostrated 
him in February, 1701, to which he succumbed on March 5. Ilis 
remains were bui-ied in a leaden coffin in the cliai)el-in-the-fort, 
the old Dutch Church. In 1790, when the fort was leveled to 
make way for the (JovernuuMit House, the c(tfiin, bearing the 
earl's arms on a large silver plate, was removed to St. Paul's 
churchyard. 

There had been all ahmg a lieutenant-governor, John Nan- 
fan, a brother or cousin of Lady Bellomont. He was now recalled 
from I>arbadoes, where he happened to be, and he remained in 
office until May, 1702. Leislerian troubles kept coming to the 
surface. It caused a deadlock in city affairs in 1701, each party 
claiming the election, until after two months the Supreme Court 
equally <livided the wards between the contestants. Another 
exciting event was the trial for high treason of Nicholas Bayard, 
for uttering libels inciting to sedition. He was condemned to 
<leath by verdict of a jury on March 0, 1702. Asking for a re- 
prieve, which he himself had refused to Leisler, he was spared 
until the arrival of the next governor, who at once released him. 

This act reveals the attitude of Rellomont's successor. It was 
again a peer of the realm who was sent to govern New York, 
Richard ITyde, Viscount Cornbury, son of the Earl of Clarendon, 
whose sister was the first wife of James, Duke of York, and the 
mother of Queen IMary and Queen Anne. Thus Cornbury was the 
first cousin of these exalted personages. Unfortunately he stands 
distinguished in the liistory of New York colonv for another 



THE EMI'IRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 153 

reason: as by far the worst governor and the meanest man 
that was thought fit to be trusted with the management of 
affairs here. He was imbecile in mind, dissolute and vicious in 
character, low and dishonorable in conduct, spiteful and violent 
in temper. At the turn of afl'airs against Iving James, while at 
that juncture his own daughters were of necessity arrayed on the 
opi)osiug side, Cornbury was guilty of a peculiarly base treach- 
ery, enhanced by falsehood of the deepest dye, and a shameless 
breach of confidence. lie Avas " hunted out of England by a host 
of credit(U"s," th(» i)aying of debts being a matter that never rose 
above the farthcst^ horizon of his intentions. 

Yet this creature A^as the cousin of Queen Mary, now deceased, 
and he was the cousin of (^ueen Anne, soon to be. Having for 
once given a good governor to New York, William now capped 
the climax of Fletcher and Sloughter with Cornbury, who, in 
the order named, was the worst of that trio, and as history- now 
knows the worst of all the bad governors under which New York 
was so often made to groan. He was '' by merit raised to that 
bad eminence.'' He began his career as governor before he left 
England by appointing as secretary of the province one Daniel 
Honan, " a man of notoriously low tastes, a thorough scamp, and 
one who seems not to have possessed a single redeeming trait.'' 
It was so bad a move that it drew forth a reprimand from the 
Lords of Trade. Cornbury promised to dismiss the obnoxious 
Honan, but did not keep the promise, retaining him to the end 
of his term. On March 15, 1702, Cornbury set sail for America. 
His cousin had been (jueen scarcely a week, William III. having 
died on March 8. 

He arrived at New York on May 3, and took up his residence 
in the mansion in the fort with Lady Cornbury, who was quite 
worthy to be her husband's mate, if the tales told by some 
ccdonial grandmothers are to be believed. The fort's name was 
forthwith changed from William Henry to Anne, after the reign- 
ing sovereign. Cornbury was inducted into office with the usual 
ceremonies, and made an ostentatious avowal of sympathy with 



154 THE EMPIRE STATE IN TFIREE CENTURIES. 

the enemies of the late i;overnor aud of Leisler, signalizing it by 
the immediate and summary release of Bayard. Later in the year 
lie received from the queen the appointment of governor of New 
Jersey, at the same lime that a formal confirmation was made by 
her of his commission for New York, given first by her prede- 
cessor. 

It was an awful incubus on the Church of England that such 
a man as this should have been a bigoted zealot in the advance- 
ment of her interests. Fletcher's z(^al in her behalf was disas- 
trous enough, without the advocacy of such a communicant as 
Cornbury. And, as might be expected, his methods of serving 
her took the shape of basest ingratitude and the most barefaced 
treachery. 

Scarce a month after his arrival the governor, whose courage 
in the face of death was none of the highest, adjourned the 
Assembly which had just met, and fled Avith his family and coun- 
cil to the village of Jamaica, on Long Islaml, distant about 
twelve miles from the East River. This alarm was caused by 
the presence of a pestilential fever in the city of New York. 
Villages on Long Island had become reasonably prosperous, but 
the prevailing style of farmer's houses did not afford spacious 
accommodation witlun. It was different with the ministers' 
manses. Jamaica, was the center of a strong Presbyterian in- 
terest, wliicli had spread over Long Island by means of emigra- 
tion direct from New and Old England. There had been services 
of that faith in certain places as early as 1056, and the oldest 
Presbyterian Church organized in the United States dates from 
1072, and was located at Jamaica. In 1700 they had built their 
second church, and opposite it stood the parsonage, a large sub- 
stantial building. The Eev. John Hubbard very courteously 
offered the governor the use of this roomy house, while he 
cramped himself and family within a smaller farmhouse nearby. 

Not long after Cornbury had thus enjoyed the fruits of Mr. 
Hubbard's hospitality, the latter foun<l himself confronted one 
Sunday afternoon with a ]ieculiar expression of the governor's 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



155 



••ratitiide. Oii retiiruiiij; to the cliiiri'li for the afternoon service, 
lie saw in the pulpit an Episcopal clergyman, and the governor 
and family and council, and a few Episcopalian residents of the 
village occupying" the pews. The baffled pastor made no disturb- 
ance, but conducted his own services in an orchard close b}. It 
was the first intimation he had that the civil arm had inducted 
an Episcopal rector into his place, with a vestry duly appointed 
to administer the property. 

It only remained to a<ld the manse. The thanks of Cornbury 
for the comfort accorded him in it were expressed by the sheriff 
sent b}^ him to dispossess the Presbyterians of this also. Of 
course, the Presbyterians had run the 
risk of just such treatment by proceed- 
ing on the act of Fletcher's Assembly 
intended for establishing Episcojtal 
churches in establishing their own. It 
was on the strength of this that Corn- 
bury could claim : " The church an<l 
parsonage having been built by Public 
Act, it could belong to none but the 
Church of England." And, therefore, 
also, was it that his base treachery was 
applauded by men like Vesey of New 
York, that two governors brought odium 

u])on themselves by seeking to right this judicial robbery, and 
that it was twenty-six years before this was finallj^ done. It had 
to be a person of Tornbury's exquisite meanness, however, to 
take advantage of a statute under the circumstances and apply 
it in this manner. 

The Indians were never quite satisfied unless they could look 
with their own eyes upon the " Corlears " who were succes- 
sively sent over by the great sachems across the waters. No 
exception could be made in the case of Cornbury es[>ecially, as 
it was imagined that the Iroquois were not quite so steady as 
usual in their alliance, since French missionaries had again been 




GOV. THOMaS DONGAN. 



156 THE EMPIPvE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 

Miuoiiii tliciii. But Coiiibury had no luind to make a penitential 
l)il<iTiniaj>e of it, cooped np in a '' nasty sloop," as Lord Bello- 
luont was content to go, gout and all. A bill rests among the 
arcliives at Albany, stating in large figures what was the amount 
of li(iu(»i', beer, and wine consumed on the way up the river by 
the governor and his suite, of whicdi boon-companion Honan 
foriiHHl a ])art. It was quite impossible to drink up all the rum 
and beer carried on this expedition as a fee to the Indians, else 
that might have disappeared also. 

'IMh' journey to AUiany occui)ied from July 1 to July 5, 1702. 
On July 17 the genei-al council of the Five Nations held a con- 
ference with the governor, lasting six days. The interpreters 
were the mayor of AIban,y, Peter Schuyler, and IJobert Living- 
ston. Schuyler had succeeded to all the faith and affection whicli 
the Indians had bestow(Ml u])on Xixn Curler, or Corlear, due to his 
dealings of incorruptible integrity and unimpeachable truthful- 
ness with these untutored children of the forest. lie went among 
them by the name of Quider (Kweeder), whicli was the nearest 
they could get to saying Peter. They trusted him implicitly, and 
as he never deceived them in ])rivate or in public affairs, his 
word was their law, and what he recommended them to do they 
knew to be for their good. 

A perfect understanding was reached when Scluvyler inter- 
preted to them the sentiments of good will and promises of pro- 
tection expressed by Cornbury on Ix'half of the queen, on the 
condition of their continued friendship, and refusal to acknowl- 
edge the rule of the French. This they promised, and during all 
of '"Queen Anne's War," or the "War of the Spanish Succes- 
sion," as it is known in Europe, terminated in 1713 by the Peace 
of rtre(dit, the incursions of the French and Indians of ('anada 
uever came anywhere near the setthMuents on the Mohawk and 
upper Hudson. 

To ofPset the French missionaries with their baleful political 
influence, the authorities of the colony sought to encourage 
Protestant missionarv work among the Indians. Three years 





Y^/^y^/^c^^^ 



THE E.^LPlIilO STATE IX TllKEE CENTURIES. 157 

before Eliot began his labors, Megapoleiisis and Weiss, of the 
Albany Dutch Church, had done considerable Christianizing 
work along the Mohawk. It being stated by the Iroquois that 
some of their people had settled nearer the St. Lawrence for the 
sake of religious instruction, the project of missionary efforts 
was taken up again by the Dutch ministers at Albany. IJev. ( Jod- 
frey Dellius had gone among them and preached the gospel 
in their own language, liev. Bernard Freeman, later at Flat- 
bush, on Long Island, began in 1700 a fruitful mission among 
the tribes surrounding Schenectady, of which place he was 
pastor. He learned their language and translated into it the 
liturgy of the Dutch Keformed Church, and portions of the Old 
and New Testament. His labors were nobly seconded at Albany 
by the llev. Mr. Leidt, or Lydius. In fact, one of the recent pas- 
tors of the church of Schenectady (now the First Keformed 
Church) states that "in fifteen years after 1702 there were re- 
corded in the Schenectady church thirty-nine marriages, one 
hundred baptisms, and fourteen received as members."' 

We need not necessarily sui»])ose that Cornbury, on his arrival, 
dissclved the Assembly then in existence, because it had a Leis- 
lerian majority. This was usually the practice of newly arrived 
governors. At any rate the next Assembly passed an act in- 
demnifying for losses sustained by the revolution of 1688, calle<l 
the " Leisler Act,'' in defiance of Cornbury's opposition. And 
then Ihe governor went on to do the best service imaginable to 
the province, by carrying his rascality to such a pitch as to bury 
all Leislerian and anti-Leislerian party questions in the one 
desire to save the colony from such official outrages in the future. 
This united every conflicting interest in the Assembly, taught 
it its own strength as the guardian of popular rights and the 
executor of the popular will, and started it upon a career which 
led to most momentous results for the whole country. 

Thanks to the Indian policy pursued for so manj^ 3'ears in New 
York, there happene<l to be very little disturbance growing out 
of Queen Anne's War at the north. But at the mouth of the 



158 THE EML'IKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

HudsoD the pcoidc were not so free from alarm, for the enemy's 
fleets were abroad, and privateers might at any moment enter 
the harbor. There was particularly one " French scare," often 
talked of afterward among the inhabitants, which was caused 
by the rumor that the French fleet in the West Indies was about 
to change its held of operations to New York and the other 
English colonies. The Assembly had been generous to Corn- 
bury before. It had voted a sum of £2,000 as a personal gift to 
him, to defray the expenses of his voyage out. It had appro- 
priated £1,800 for the defense of the frontiers at the north, and 
an allowance for his bibulous trip to Albany. Now it voted 
£1,500 for erecting fortifications at the Narrows, and i)lanting 
batteries along the East and North IJivers. It was thus a de- 
liberate lie which the governor wrote down in the leisure of 
composing dispatches to the Lords of Trade, when he assured 
them that he much feared he could not convince the Assembly 
"how reasonable a thing it is that they should raise funds for 
the providing arms and ammuuitiou for the defense of the conn- 
try." 

It needed (iuly fraud to embellish tills lie, and make as perfect 
a piece of villany as the annals of the jtolice courts can furnish. 
The French fleet never came, but on July 2(1, 170(», a privateer 
was sighted oft' Sandy Hook, said to be the forerunner of the fleet. 
And then in that suprenu' moment of danger it was found out 
that there were no fortifications at the Narrows, but that the 
noble lord had utilized the £1,.jOO raised for that i)urpose to 
build him a villa on (Joveruor's Island in the Bay. A little more 
invc^stigaticm also showed that £1,000 of the £1,800 had been 
diverted to his own uses. 

This was simply intolerabl(\ AVho could have suj^posed they 
were dealing with a common thief in the governor's chair? The 
very council turned against him and instituted instant measures 
for defense and to secure funds, mainly by an appeal for volun- 
tary subscriptions. The Assembly voted to appoint a treasure!- 
of the province, of their own selection, for " the receipt and dis- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



159 



burseiiieut of any moneys the lei;islaturo might order to be 
raised for public purposes/' Wlien Corubury appealed to the 
queen, liis scandalous conduct compelled her to side with the 
Assembly, and Colonel Abraham De Peyster was appointed 
treasurer. Now, also, was abandoned the practice of voting- 
subsidies for a number of years at 
once, to be applied by the gov- 
ernor at discretion. The Assem- 
bly henceforth voted a revenue 
for (»uly one year, and would ap- 
propriate salaries only for per- 
sons actually named in the bill. 
Tornbury's rascality made ])ossi- 
ble a giant's stride forward for 
the cause of representative gov- 
ernment. 

The recall of such a man was 
only a question of time. Tlie 
queen herself was mortified and 
scandalized by his conduct, and 
the official ax fell in March, 
ITOlS, when his successor was ap- 
pointed. No sooner was it known 
in New York that he Avas dei)osed 
than his creditors combined and 
he was thrown into prison for 
debt, which only his office had 
prevented before. While in 
prison his father died, and he be- 
came Earl of Clarendon; which, by the peculiar laws of England, 
released him from prison as a peer of the realm. Thus liberated, 
he returned to England, his wife having died at New York two 
years before. In 1723 he, died in London, and the earldom became 
extinct for lack of heirs. The title, however, was revived later 
for the benefit of a distant relative. 




THE DONGAN CHARTER SEAL. 



160 



THE EMPIRE STATE IX TIIUEE CENTURIES. 



Thus have we reached the vear 1708 in the coiii'se of our uarra- 
tive, and that year completes the eentury since 1G09, when the 
authentic historv of discovery and settlement for New York 
begins. A great change had come over the face of the land even 
during that first century. Then all was primeval forest, stream, 
and meadow, wluM-e savage or barbaric Indians gleaned 
their precarious sustenance, or exercised their rudely or- 
ganized empire. Now there was a city of four thousand souls 
at the mouth of the Hudson, with two respectable churches, with 



/ / 







FEKKV IIKTWEKN NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN, 1712. 

streets laid out in or(h'rly manner, with houses of brick fancifully 
ornate, and here and there a mansion of sonu' lu-etensions. Long- 
Island was well covered with prosperous towns, governed by the 
" meeting " of all the people in pure democratic style. Scattered 
plantations along the Hudson on both sides led up gradually to 
Kingston, where again had groAvn up a cluster of towns. 

Passing a few big manors, Livingston's and TJeusselaer's, an- 
other city, of say a thousand or twelve hundriMl souls, was 
encountered at the head of naviaation on the Hudson. Here at 



Till] KMl'IUE STA'iE IX TI1K]:K I'K.XTUUIKS. 



161 



Albany was the ceutta- of the Indian or fur trade, and westward, 
an outpost of civilization had risen, the villai«e of Schenectady, 
having perhaps i*ecovered a poi)ulation of f(tur or tive hundred 
since the disaster of 1(51)0. I>ut all beyond, west and north and 
south, there was still the wilderness, silent as to the voices of 
civilized activity, frightful at times with the whoop of frenzied 
savages cm the war])ath. 

There was much still to be gained and recdaimed in spite of the 
great advance from the early days of colonization, when even 
white men lived in bark huts or dugouts on hill sides. The next 
century would see a much more rapid development, yet at the end 
of that, too, the wilderness, with its wild inhabitants, would still 
be in abundant evidence. It was reserved for the last or third 
century to overto]) in ])rogress by an immeasurable distance what 
the two previous centuries had productMl together. Among the 
marvels of the nineteenth century was the marvel of the transfor- 
mation of New York to what it is to-day. 



SpEPOJVEUQb^ 




LIVINGSTON ARMS. 




CHAPTER YI. 

EARLY INTIMATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE. 

IJEAT results and fiual issues iu liistor^^ are apt to domi- 
nate our view of the events proceeding them and lead- 
ing up to tlieni. We test and appreciate everything 
by its bearings on the end. So in our Colonial history, 
if the Colonial existence had continued till now, there are many 
incidents which A\()uld have failed to attract our notice, but 
which, being seen now. in their relation to the ultimate and 
glorious transformation in our condition, shine conspicuous and 
are seized upon with glad emphasis by the historian. 

If we characterize the eighteenth century (the second in 
the history of our State) as one of development, through its grad- 
ual occupation by civilized communities; and as the one that 
brought Independence — a very ordinary occurrence becomes at 
once strangely luminous with potential consequences. What 
could be more in the way of the expected than the meeting be- 
tween a new governor and his provincial assembly? Yet Ban- 
croft says of tliis occurrence: "The Assembly which met Lord 
Lovelace Ix'gan the contest that was never to cease but with in- 
dependence." The intimations of what this century was to bring 
to New York and its sister colonies, nmde, therefore, an early 
appearance, for this event took place in April, 1700. 

On March 28, 1708, John, Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley, was 
a])poiuted by ()ueen Anne to succeed her cousin, the insufferable 
Lord Cornbury, as governor of New York. We have already 
spoken of the distant family connection between the former 
Ciovernor Francis Lovelace and the incumbent now under discus- 



THE KM PIKE 8TATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 163 

sioii. lie Avas the fourth to bear the title of Lord Lovelace. As 
his immediate predecessor, the third Baron of Hurley, had been 
first anu)n<i,' the peers to hail the coming of William of Orange, 
had suffered imprisonment in his cause, had been largely' instru- 
mental in securing the crown for William and Mary, and after 
them for (^ueen Anne — the favor of an appointment to an im- 
portant post in the colonies was but a logical consequence in the 
career of his successor. 

Lord Lovelace did not start on his voyage to New York till 
more than half a year after his appointment, or in October, 1708. 
lie was accompanied by his wife and three children, all boys of 
tender age. The journey proved so disagreeable and even peri- 
lous that his Lordship formed a decided opinion, afterward offi- 
cially expressed, that even sailors ought not to be exposed to the 
dangers of an ocean trip in the winter. '' No ship," he wrote, 
" ought to be sent hither from England after August at farthest." 
The three ships composing the expedition conveying the gov- 
ernor to his post encountered a great storm off the New England 
coast, which separated the ship bearing Lovelace and his family 
^from the others, and drove it for refuge far uj) into Buzzard's 
Bay. She was then fain to make her way to New York through 
Long Island Sound. 

That winter stands recorded in European and American his- 
tory both as particularly severe, and the passage of Hell (late 
was so completely blocked with ice that the governor enjoyed 
the unicpie experience of ending an ocean voyage at Flushing, 
L. I. There followed a not too comfortable tri]» overlan<l of more 
than twenty miles, for the seven miles of " bird's-tlight " distance 
between Flushing and New York had not as yet been bridged by 
causeways and highways and railways. The course led around 
by the way of Jamaica, througli Brooklyn (jet Breuckelen), to 
the ferry. The East Biver, too, was crossed with difficulty and 
with great risk to life or health. The fatal effects upon the dis- 
tinguished family so painfully beset became apparent all too 
soon. 



164 



THE KMriKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



Oil December IS, 1708, Lord Lovelace finally landed at New 
York, Not Ions; after, ptM-liaps as soon as he and his family had 
recovered from the fatigue of this particularly trying jonrney, 
a i)iil)lic reception was tendered him, at which his graceless pre- 
deccssoi- \v;is present. It included a banquet, ordered by the re- 
tiring govei-nor and the council, and we are almost tempted to 
believe that this gave Corubury a chance to perpetrate a final 
and i»eculiarly mean i)iece of villainy. As late as February, 1712, 
Ihe caterer who !iad furnished the repast was still petitioning the 
jiutliorilies for his bill of tKJ, 7s.; so that it looks extremely likely 
tliat Corubury had i)o(dveted the appropriation, which surely 

nuist have been immediate- 
ly made and meant to be 
paid. 

It was with keen interest 
that the people must have 
r(^garded the man who came 
to supersede so intolerable 
a nuisance and disgrace, 
aud they nnist have been es- 
]MM-ially gratified and re- 
lieved to find that his suc- 
cessor Avas a man of spotless 
rei)utation and noble char- 
acter. " Nature had endowed him with a magistick and amiable 
countenance," said Hector Vesey, of Trinity Church. He was '' a 
man of refinement and education, too, having graduated from tli;' 
university. A man, once more, of a kindly heart and great con- 
sideration for others placed in different and lowlier circum- 
stances." 

A word may be devoted to the council that Avas to assist Lord 
Lovelace in the administration of the province. Colonel Peter 
S(diuyler, Albany's first mayor, and the Indians' beloved 
" (^uider," was to be president of it. He and Eip Van Dam, of 
wIkuu we shall hear more anon, Avith two or three others, had 




GOVERNOR DONGAN'S HOUSE, 
STATEN ISLAND. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 165 

beeu Cornbuiy's councilors. Three new men were added. The 
holidays were allowed to pass before the business of ^^overnment 
was taken up under the new chief, and the first meeting of the 
council took place on January 5, 1709. The first act was one of 
ordinary occuri-ence at the beginning of a new administration. 
The present i)r()yin(ial assembly was dissolyed, and writs issued 
for the election of another one, the election being set for 
March 10. 

The Assembly thus elected met at Xew York on April G, 1709. 
On the first day no business was done except chosing a speaker, 
and William Nicolls, who had seryed as such for six consecutive 
years previously, and was to hold the position for ten more years 
thereafter, was re-elected. On the next day, April 7, after or- 
ganizing for business, the Assembly was ushered into the pres- 
ence of Lord Lovelace and his council, and this was the momen- 
tous meeting characterized so sententiouslv by Bancroft. Why 
did he speak of it as he does? Just how di<l here and then begin 
the contest which was to cease only with independence? What 
was the contest? 

It lay between royal prerogative and pojtular rights. It has 
been relatiMl how ('ornbury's misconduct made tlie people's rep- 
resentatives block with a firm hand the api)roaches to the public 
treasury. They insisted upon themselves appointing a provincial 
treasurer, a privilege which the queen felt compelled to grant 
on account of the dastardly conduct of her cousin. Tluw resolved 
never again to vote a revenu*^ for a number of years at onc(\ To 
I'ellomont such a grant had beeu made for six years; in 1702 it 
had been voted for a term of seven years. It had been determined 
and announced by the Assembly that wlu^u this term should ex- 
])ire, in 1709, they would vote a revenue for only one year, and 
subsequently continue to make the grant annual only. The in- 
structions given by royal authority to Lovelace were to get the 
Ass(Mubly to abandon that i>ui'pose. 

The governor addrcssf'd the Assembly in a court(M)us speech, 
in which he set forth the necessities of the colony in this time of 



1G6 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THliEE CENTURIES. 

war, laiiicMitiiiii tlie calamity of debt which had accumulated 
recently, yet poiutini;- out that liberal devices were in order for 
the (leffMisc of the country and the protection of commerce on 
Ihc iii.iih seas and alonu the coast. The burnin.n (luestion was 
lonched ui>(>n in the f(dl()wini^ words: ''I can not in the least 
doubt, ticntlemen, but that you will raise the same revenue for 
the same Unmi of years, for the support of the government, as 
was raised by Act of Assembly in the eleventh year of the reign 
of the lat(^ King William, of glorious memory." 

If the uns])(\ikal)le Cornbury had not intervened, no doubt th«' 
Assembly would have done for Lovelace what the}^ had done for 
his two immediate predecessors. Lord John was a good man, 
everyway worthy of their confidence. But it was now no longer 
a question of the man who was governor. The people and their 
right to have a voice in the disposition of the money raised by 
taxation, had become the supreme consi<leration. Therefore the 
Assembly did not accede to the request so courteously put by the 
kind-hearted governor. They refused to abandon their design, 
and voted a revenue for only one year. Moreover, the sum was 
not even granted in the lump; each appropriation was to be 
specifically defined as to amount and puri)ose, this feature being 
made to apply later to the salaries of officials. And insensibly 
this led to an invasion by the legislature into the executive de- 
partuK^nt, for it was to be expected that no grant of salary could 
pass if the Assembly objected to the individual who was to be- 
come the recipi(^nt. By the refusal of the Assembly to comply 
with this demand of the governor, or rather of the crown back 
of him, the New York Assembly, doubtless all unconsciouslv, 
had bciiun the contest of which Bancroft speaks. It is certain 
that no one then foresaw what it was to end in. 

Lord Lovidace was not destined to repeat his request, and thus 
continue the contest in his owm person. The governor was ill 
wlicn he arrived after that dreadful journey, and he was ill 
wlicn lie met tlu^ Assembly. Two of his boys had caught dan- 
gei'oiis cohls, and the second l)oy died before the end of Api'il. 



THE EML'IRE STATE IN TIIKEH CENTT'RIES. 167 

The oldest boy, John, lingered ii little loni;ei', falling a victim 
to the disease late in ^lay. Before tliat, on jMay (>, 1701), exactly a 
month after the meeting of the new Assembly, the commnnity 
was startled by the annonncement that the governor was dead. 
It was the third time a govern(»r of New York had died at his 
post, but Slonghter's demise could not have caused great regret, 
and even Bellomont was not so universally mourned as Lord 
Lovelace, whose gentle bearing had antagonized no one, and 
whose illness and bereavement had awakened a pathetic interest. 
It was a sad home-turning for Lady Lov(dac(^ The third boy 
only went back with her, but he died without issue in ITGS, and 
the line of the Lovelaces of Ilurh^v became (^xtinct with him. 

The sudden death of the governor threw the chief direction of 
nffairs for a little while once more into the hands of IJichard 
Ingoldsby, upon wh(>m this duty had devolved on the death of 
Sloughter in 1()!IL lie ha<l been niad(^ li<^uteuant-governor under 
Cornbury in 1702, when the hitter's jurisdiction was extended 
over New Jersey. Evidently he gave little satisfaction to the 
authorities at home, for in 1700 the Lords of Trade prevailed 
upon the queen to revoke liis commission. In some unexplained 
manner the order to that effect did not r(\ich America, and hence 
at Lord Lovelace's death Ingoldsby was still virtually lieutenant- 
governor. In September, 1709, the queen renewed the revoca- 
tion, however, and it reached Ingoldsby this time. Thereupon 
Dr. Gerardus Beekman became acting-governor, he being senior 
councilor and president of the council in the absence of Peter 
Schuyler, but on the latter's return lu^ became for the time being- 
chief magistrate. The interregnum lasted until the summer of 
1710, when the next governor arrived. 

This was Brigadier-General Robert Hunter, an interesting 
personality in many particulars. He was allied to the nobility 
of Scotland, the Hunters of Hunterston in Ayrshire. But being 
a younger son of a fourth son of the heir to the manorial 
estates, he had to make his own way in life, and began the strug- 
gle humbly enough as api)rentice to an apothecary. Tliis was 



168 



THE KMPIUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



liardly a coii.uviiial sphere for so brii'lit a spirit, and he soon is 
found in the army fiij^htini'- under William III. and Marlborough 
on the famous battlefields of Beli»ium. 

His mental abilities were of the first order, for although he 
appears to have had no university education, he possessed liter- 
ary tastes and powers whi(di made him the intimate friend of 
Swift and Addison. His capacity and address in the military 
profession must also have been considerable, as he rose to the 
rank of brigadier-general in the British army. His graces of 
])erson and charm of manner won him the hand of an heiress in 
her own right, and the widow of a peer, Lady Hay, whose de- 
ceased husband was Lord John Hay, second son of the Marquis 
of Tweedale. He was now well on the way of promoticm in civil 

l)osts, and in 1707 he was appointed lieu- 
t(-nant-governor of Virginia. Seemingly 
ill fortune at last overtook him, for on his 
way to America he was captured by a 
Lronch nmn-of-war, detained as a prisoner 
in I-'rance, and never reached Virginia at 
all. 

But the bad luck was only seeming: he 
was back in England by an exchange of prisoners when the news 
of Lord Lovelace's death reached there, and he was at once ap- 
pointed to succeed him as (lovernor of New York and New Jersey. 
He served for nine years, a longer period than that of any one be- 
fore him. He maintained the contest with the Assembly loyally 
foi' the crown, but he was a man of liberal views, and predict; u 
that while tho coloni<'s were then ''infants at their niotlu rs' 
breasts," yet that as such they would *' wean themselves wlu ii 
they became of age." Although a true son of the English Church, 
he was too broad in his sympathies to blind himself to injustice, 
and he drew down upon his h(^a<l n\U( h clerical vituperati<tn foi" 
his efforts i(\ adjust tlie inicjuitous ])erfidy whereby the Jamaica 
I'rcsbytcrians had lost their i)roperty to the Episcopal Church. 




SEAL OF mrrcnESS 

COUNTY. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES, 169 

It was not till tlio days of his successor, however, that the prop- 
erty was restored. 

His instructions convej^ed extraordinary powers to the new 
governor. The " War of the v^panish succession," or " Queen 
Anne's war," was still rava^iun Europe and America, and Hun- 
ter was enii>owered to levy and mobilize the militia of his two 
]»r()vinces at his discretion. Commissions for privateering to 
captains of ships might proceed from him; and he could build as 
many " forts, platforms, castles, and fortifications " as seemed 
necessary to him. The instructions also named his council, and 
we again recognize names before familiar, and others of later 
prominence — Peter Schuyler, Itobert Walters, Gerardus Beek- 
man. Rip Van Dam, Caleb Heathcote, Abraham De Peyster, 
David Provoost, and a few more. 

The event that marks Ciovernor Hunter's term as one of pre- 
eminent imi)ortance and interest, was the arriA al with him of a 
large number of German emigrants, the advance swell of that 
mighty wave of immigration which was to mean so much for the 
State and the Union in the following century. With Governor 
Hunter arrived no less than three thousand, who had been pre- 
ceded by about fifty-six souls who c^'.me over with Governor Love- 
lace. 

These people all came from the section of Germany called the 
Palatinate, or the Pfalz, extending for some distance along the 
Rhine and embracing the valley of the Neckar and the Black 
Forest on the east of the Rhine, its capital city being Heidelb(^rg, 
with its famous "■ Castle," the Alhambra of Germany. Several 
times since 1074 Louis XIV. had sent devastating hosts through 
this territory, but in 1G88 he capped the climax by sending an 
army of one hundred thousand men into the province with the 
deliberate purpose of reducing it to utter ruin. After the Revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, depriving the Protestants 
of France of their right to exercise their religion, the Elector 
Palatine had welcomed thousands of refugees, and the Grand 
^[onarch, who was only great in name, while very petty in soul, 



170 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

aud who for this act should be styled rather the Grand Monster, 
determined to punish the (Jerman prince for his humanity. Forty 
cities and innumerable villages were laid in ashes, and the tourist 
to-day still looks upon the results of the deeds then perpetrated 
in the ruins of Ileidelbero' Castle. The country districts were 
likewise swei)t by the besom of destruction, not a homestead, or 
farmyard, or vineyard being spared, but all given a prey to the 
flames. 

All Europe Avas overrun with the fugitives from this diabolical 
vengeance, and whon the " War of the Spanish Succession '' ar- 
rayed England at the head of an alliance against France, natur- 
ally many of the Palatines looked for aid tow^ard that country. 
The vast unoccupied regions of field and forest in its American 
colonies, ready to yield rich returns by cultivation, offered an 
opportunity for disposing of these worthy mendicants in a man- 
ner likely to be profitable, both for them and for the mother 
country. It was represented to the queen that multitudes of 
them could be set at work in New York province alone, manufac- 
turing " naval stores." General Hunter, while yet in England, 
in a memorial to the queen on the subject, said : " Your Majesty 
imports four thousand seven hundred barrcds of tar yearly from 
the Baltic states. It has been found in America that one man can 
make six tuns of stores per year; and several working together 
could make double that in proportion. We suppose that six hun- 
dred men employed in it will produce seven thousand tuns a year, 
which, if more than your Majesty needs, could be profitably em- 
ployed in trade with Spain and Portugal." 

This was a neat, business-like calculation which might well 
stimulate those already charitably disposed toward the unhappy 
Palatines. They readily agreed to being transported to America, 
to settle on lands assigned them, and to work at producing naval 
stores. The governmont, for its part of the contract, promised 
to furnish them free transportation to New York, to subsist them 
for one year, to give tlu/m seeds and implements for agricultural 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



171 



purposes, for all of wliieli the naval stores were to pay, after 
whu'li forty acres of land would be jiranted to each family. 

Wlieu (Jeiieral Hunter was ready to sail to New York, three 
thousand of the l^ahitincs wer(^ sent out to aceompany him, the 
expedition requirini; ten vessels to convey them. Disaster still 
pursued the unfortunates, who had already drank so deeply of 
the cup of misfortune. Scarc<^ly liad the fleet started when a 
tremendous storm came down upon it, scatterini;' the ships and 
compelling one to return. The voyage was greatly prolonged by 
continuous bad weatlier, and a disease broke out among the 
crowded passengers, to which nearly five hundred fell victims 
and were consigned to watery 
graves in mid-ocean. At last, in 
June, 1710, most of the fleet en- 
tered New York harbor. But 
never before had so large and 
sudden an influx of immigration 
appeared there before. Here were 
nearly three thousand persons, 
and the whole population of New 
York City was only twice that. 
The rumors of the fatal disease 
also alarmed magistrates and 
citizens. Hence they refused to 
allow the poor, cramped creatures to land from their floating 
pesthouses until quarters had been hastily liamniere<l together 
on Governor's Island, and here the Palatines abode until they 
could be distributed among the lands assigned to them. 

In following that distribution we at the same time trace the 
story of the beginning of settlement for several parts of New 
York State that had hitherto remained a pristine wilderness. 
As has alread}^ been seen, there were great leaps over unoccupied 
territory all along the Hudson, between New York and Kingston, 
and Kingston and Albany, while west of Schenectady no white 
settlements had been established. Wo shall now behold these 




SEAL OF NEW YOKK, 1G8G. 



172 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

gaps tilling' np and the tirst advance made into the great western 
territory stretching along the Mohawk and beyond. Creeping 
nj) slowly along the Hndson, we find patents granted and settle- 
ment made, and a township organized at Orangetown, at tli' 
sonthern extremity of liockland, bnt then Orange Connty, in the 
year KiSG. A Ilngnenot of substance had acquired a patent of 
the region above this, including Haverstraw, twenty years before, 
and it became a spot for the placing of refugees from religious 
persecution in France. 

In l(i(>o a Huguenot, Louis Du Bois, settled at Kingston, having 
penetrated into the country of the Walkill River south of that 
town in pursuit of Indians who had captured his wife, lie not 
only recovered her, but Avas so i)leased with the district that he 
induced a number of felloAv Hugu(^nots to take out a patent foi' 
thirty-six th(»usand acres; and twelve good men and true thus 
came to found, in KmT, the town of NeAV Paltz. It was so 
named in grateful remembrance of the Palatinate where they 
had first found refuge from persecution. And, curiously enough, 
now came as neighbors people from that very country whose 
misfortunes had ccmie upon them for doing good to the coni- 
l>atriots of the settlers at New I*altz. For the fifty or more Pala- 
tines who had come over as an advance guard with (loverncu" 
Lovelace in 1708, were given a grant of land of over two thou- 
sand acres, now covered by the city of Newburgh, where they 
s(4tled in 1701). 

The large accession of Palatines who came over in 1710, were 
placed, in part, upon extensive tracts of land both on the east and 
west sides of the Hudson River above the latitude of Kingston. 
Those on the east side, whose site was long called East Camp, 
and the histcu-y of whose settlement is preserved in the name of 
Cermautown to-<lay, occupied part of the manorial lands of 
Pobert Livingston, whosc^ '' acquisitiveness " saw a good chance 
for exercise in victualing and further exploiting the newcomers, 
while they made theii- " naval stores." The reaion which the 



THK 10:MPIKE state in TIIKKE C'EXTURIKS. 173 

I'alatines occupied and devel(»]>cd on tlio west side is still marked 
by the name of West Camp. 

It was to be expected that when once in the wilderness, re- 
moved from the e3'es of the authorities, there should be found 
officials who felt no other interest in these unfortunates than to 
make them minister to their <;i-eed. These soon reduced them to 
actual want and miser^^ by failing to supply them with the prom- 
ised subsistence for their families, or with payment for their serv- 
ices. A comi)anv of men emi)loye<l for garrison duty at Albany 
and Schenectady, having been discharged without pay, in des- 
peration made their way to Schoharie Creek, where the Indians 
gave them lauds. In fifteen daj's they cleared a passable road 
from Schenectady some fifteen miles long, and in this manner 
fifty families came to take up their abode here in 1718, at a spot 
about twenty miles from the Junction of Sclndiarie Creek with 
the ^loliawk. 

As we proceed westAAard along the latter river, we shall come 
t(>-day to a place called Palatine Bridge, reminding us of who 
came here first to settle. Several small colonies of the Palatines 
grew uj) through the valley. In 1723 they founded Stone Arabia, 
and going s^ill farther west beyond the rocky fastnesses of Little 
Falls, they settled at (xerman Flats in 1721, and thus the out- 
posts of civilization liad crept up nearly to the present city of 
ITtica. The difficulties they encountered in this i)ioneer work 
Avere great. The i^ublic road (a mere apology for such an institu- 
tion at best) ended one mile beyond the present Fonda as late 
as 1720. The nearest grist mill for the convenience of the people 
of Stone Arabia and German Flats was at a spot about twelve 
miles west of Schenectady. As the farthest western setthMuent 
was made under the administration of Hunter's successor, it 
was called Burnetsfield for a time, but now it bears the name 
that more pertinently tells the story of its first occupation. To 
afford these daring pioneers some protection against ahA'ays 
threatening assaults from French and Indians, blockhouses, sur- 
rounded by palisades, were built at intervals along the Mohawk, 



174 THK KMPIUK STATE IX TiUlFA-: CEXTrUIKS. 

and Fort Hunter, still designatiuij; a villaiix^ at the mouth or 
l:^choharie Creek, dates from the year 1712, and commemorates 
the governor of that day. 

It seems wearisome to turn to the annals of war when the 
annals of peace are so much more interesting. Yet are the former 
so much more abundant because it has been for so long a 
time the habit of history to concentrate its attention upon cami)s 
and governments, rather than upon the homes and habits and 
doings of the i»(M)])le. We can not, however, even with the new 
and better historical purpose in vogue in these later days, quite 
neglect the class of events which the annals of war scatter so 
lavishly over their pages. And military history claims some 
attention in narrating the progress of New York. 

As has been state<l, all through the administration of Corn- 
bury, and still through the earlier years of Iluntcu-, there ragivl 
in Europe the '' War of the Spanish Succession.'' Louis XIV. 
wanted to place u])ou the throne of Spain a scion of his oAvn 
house of Bourbon, and nearly all the rest of Europe was allied 
against him to prevent it. It was during this war that the Duke 
of Marlborough won his undying glory, and to the surprise of all 
the world beat France's greatest generals on the famous fields of 
Blenheim, ]Mal])laquet, and ()udenar(h\ The only way to get at 
France in AmcM-ii a ^^'as to inva(h^ and seize Canada, Avlunice 
armies attended by liorih's of savages came forth repeatedl^^ to 
do deeds unknown of in civilized warfare. New York had not 
forgotten the horrors of Schenectady in KJOO. New England was 
thrilled once and again by such massacres as those of Deerfield in 
1704, and of Haverhill in 1708; and no part (tf the frontiers was 
safe from like incursions at any time. 

It was easy to enlist the people of New Yor-k and New England 
in a campaign against Canada. We have mentioned the abortive 
effort to organize an expedition for its invasion in Leisler's time. 
Yet there was enough done to entitle it to be called the first 
Canadian campaign. The second was to have been undertaken 
under Lord Lovelace. He was informed just before his death 



TIIK EMTIKE STATE IN TIIKEE CENTURIES. 



175 



tliat the governineut in Eni>laiid was fitting out an extensive ex- 
l)e<lition. Colonel Samuel ^\4ell was to organize the American 
end of it, and the governors of New York, New Jersey, New Eng- 
land, lihode Island, and Pennsylvania were to co-operate with him 
in raising levies of men and procuring supplies from the legisla- 
tures. Lord Lovelace died before Colonel Vetch arrived, but the 
work went on under Lieutenant-Governor Ingoldsby. 

Considerable opposition was developed in the Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey Assemblies, because of the prevalent Quaker 
element. But the New 
York legislature pledged 
itself to raise ten thou- 
sand pounds, and early in 
the summer of 1709 its 
contingent of militia was 
a 1 r e a d y on the way. 
Indeed, whatever some 
legislatures might do, the 
people ev(n'y where rose 
cii masse, and Bancroft as- 
sures us that at one time 
during the war one-fifth 
of the entire population 
able to carry arms was en- 
listed, fired with an inex- 
tinguishable '' willingness to exterminate the natives." 

The plan of campaign, as detailed in England, was to consist 
of a naval attack on Quebec and a land attack on Montreal. A 
s(juadron of ships, carrying five regiments of regulars, was to 
start from England and be in Boston by the middle of JMay, 1709, 
whence, re-enforced by twelve hundred men of New York, it was 
to sail for the St. Lawrence. The land expedition was to number 
fifteen hundred men, who were to rendezvous at Albany and go 
up the old w^ay, per Hudson and Champlain valleys. The chief 
command of this part of the enterprise was to be given to Colonel 




PETER SCHUYLER. 



17G THH EMl'lUK STATE IX TIIUEE CENTURIES. 

lM-;iiicis Mcliolst)ii, who bad liiiriicdly left his post in New Voi'l; 
twenty years before, at the uprising under I.eish-r. (\»h»nel 
N'etch was to be his second in eonmiand, and liis services were 
valiiabh' because of his familiarity witli the country to be trav- 
ersed. He had been a resident of Albany, was married to a 
dau.iilder of Kolx^rt l.iviui'ston, and had been dispatched at one 
lime lo (^lebec to nei^otiate an exchange of prisoners, on which 
occasion he had diligently exercised an excellent pair of eyes and 
a good memory for future uses such as these. 

On -lune 2S, 17(M>, Colonel Nicludson nuu'ched his little army 
of fifteen hundred men, attended by a contingent from the Five 
Nations under Colonel Peter Schuyler, from Albany into the 
northern wilderness. At Stillwater he crossed the Hudson, and 
then advanced across the interval of forest until he reached the 
head of \\'ood Creek, flowing into the southern extremity of Lake 
Chami)lain. The army never got any nearer Canada than this 
cam}) on Wood Creek. Here it awaited news from the fleet to 
come from England, without which Nicholson could not move. 
Due in Boston in May, it had not yet reached there when Colonel 
Vetch arrived in July to ascertain its movements. In August a 
solitary dispatch boat entered the harbor, informing the enthu- 
siastic colonists that the fleet had gone to Lisbon to aid the 
l*ortuguese. This news reached the army on Wood Creek in 
September, and it put an end to the second Canadian campaign. 

It had suffered a frightful loss of life from disease, caused by 
the aimless detention in the wilderness, and some either inten- 
tional or accidental fouling of the w^aters of the creek. Besides, 
the burden of a great debt, incurred as now perceived for naught, 
lay grievously upon the various colonists. It seemed like wanton 
mockery or deception on the part of the mother country. At any 
rates the cause of the colonists, their dangers, their needs in this 
war, seemed to be oppressed by a monumental indifference on 
the part of the people at home. The failure of the expedition had 
also had a bad effect upon the Indian allies of the Five Nations,. 




S'l^EIPMEM" WA.M milH^^Il]LAIiIEo 




THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 177 

uiidermiiiing their faith in the power of Eugland to sustain 
them in their opposition to the French in Canada. 

For these reasons a unique experiment was decided on by a 
citizen of New York province. Peter Schuyler, the friend and 
idol of the Indians, was resolved to retain their confidence in 
England; and at the same time was bound to rouse the torpor 
of the mother country into some sort of active interest and sym- 
pathy. He would force the Canadian question upon the attention 
of the English government and nation. Therefore, toward the 
close of 1709 he embarked for England, taking with him at his 
own expense five chief sachems of the Five Nations. It indicated 
immense confidence in Schuyler on their part, that they should 
have consented to undertake so unusual a journey, and one still 
so full of mystery to them. But the wisdom of the measure was 
more than justified. 

The Indian sachems (kings as they were dubbed in England) 
were overwhelmed with astonishment at the splendors of the 
court, and the evidences of power everywhere apparent. And 
on their part the English nation was certainly roused out of its 
indifference. Great crowds followed them wherever they went. 
By order of Queen Anne, mantles of scarlet embroidered with 
gold lace were made for them, in which to appear at court. 
They presented her with belts of wampum in renewed pledge of 
fealty against the French. She ordered their portraits to be 
Ijainted by a Dutch painter, Jan Verelst, residing at court, of 
which were made mezzotint prints, and nearly two hundred 
cojiies sent over to America in 1712. 

The visit stands immortalized even in English literature, for 
on Friday, April 27, 1711, came out No. 50 of the '■' Spectator," 
with an article on the " Indian Kings," who " were in this coun- 
try about a twelvemonth ago," from the pen of Addison him- 
self. And Dean Swift declared that he had intentions of writing 
a book on the same subject. And then to make the story com- 
plete, English historians, with that injustice characteristic of 
them when the colonies are referred to, quietly rob the American 



178 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Schuyler of the j'lory of this brilliant and effective undertaking, 
by ascribing the whole scheme to Colonel Francis Nicholson, 
who happened to return to England in the same ship which car- 
ried over the five Indians and their friend Quider. 

In the spring of 1711 preparations were made for the third 
Canadian campaign. The plan was an exact repetition of the 
former one. The colonial land forces, again under Nicholson's 
command, were to assemble at Albany, and a large fleet from 
England was to sail to Boston, there take up the Massachusetts 
troops, and then direct its course into the St. Lawrence. Several 
imix)rtant circumstances distinguished this third expedition 
from the former one. In the first place, the fleet came to Bos- 
ton as the one before did not, and it was much more formidable, 
consisting of nine ships and sixty transports, carrying seven 
regiments of regulars, or fifty-five hundred men. To these were 
added fifteen hundred provincials. The land forces under Nich- 
olson also numbered more than before, amounting to four thou- 
sand troops. 

But the issue of this third campaign was lamentably like that 
of the first and second. Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker, scorning 
some practical advice given by mere colonists, ran ten of his 
transports upon the rocks at the entrance of the St. Lawrence, 
and nearly nine hundred men perished. It was not a very 
serious loss, but the men at the head of the naval expedition were 
court favorites and nothing else, and they were easily dis- 
couraged. The great fieet turned back, making haste to get to 
England. 

Colonel, now General Nicholson, had in the meantime gone up 
the usual route from Albany to Lake Champlain, and was en- 
camped again on Wood Creek, waiting for news from the fleet, 
as in 1709. When it came there was nothing for him to do but 
to march back to the settlements and dismiss his four thousand 
men. A heavier debt than before only made the colonists' dis- 
gust the more intense, and it was hard to keep themselves in 
countenance with their Indian allies. However, only two years 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



179 



later the peace of Utrecht (1713) put an end to the war, both in 
Europe and America, and no occasion arose to try another Cana- 
dian campaign. 

The Assembly had had a chance of only one encounter with 
good Lord Lovelace. The long term of (lovernor Hunter gave 
him plenty of opportunities to get a taste of their temper in the 
contest which the^^ had initiated against the royal prerogative. 
There was, of course, the matter of finance and revenue, and the 
vexatious way of doling out piecemeal by the year and for speci- 
fied purposes and persons. Hunter had orders from home as 
Lovelace had, to get them to depart from that practice, and the 
orders remained uncomplied with when presented to the Assem- 
bly. 

The legislature took a bolder stand still, on the broader ground 
of their right to legislate in general. When 
the threat was made to curtail or abrogate 
this as a punishment for their disobedience, 
the}^ hesitated not to assert that their right 
to legislate was an inherent one, belonging 
to them as freemen, inhabitants of English 
colonies, which gave them all the right of 

^ T 1 1 • ^ m • 1 . V- 1 \i-l • THE ALBANY SEAL, 1686. 

English subjects. The right to make their 
own laws and to vote on the expenditure of their own money, as 
well as on the methods of raising it and the amount, was not 
based on any concession or grant of the crown, but on " the free 
choice and election of the people, who ought not, nor justly could 
be, divested of their property by taxation or otherwise, without 
their consent." 

Doubtless it afforded Governor Hunter some anxiety or annoy- 
ance that he could not make the Assembly square with the de- 
mands of the crown. But possibly he felt considerable sympathy 
with their position. He writes extravagantly of his tilts with 
the Assembly, which would rather argue that he took a humor- 
ous view of the situation, and certainly the humor is unmis- 
takable in the following passage in a letter to Dean Swift ; ^' Here 




180 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

is the finest air to live upon in the universe; and if our trees and 
birds could speak, and our Assemblymen be silent, the finest 
conversation, too." 

The frequent friction had produced no feelings of resentment 
a.iiainst the governor; and when he left his post in 1719, Kobert 
Livingston, then Speaker of the Assembly, voiced the sentiments 
of that body when he said in reply to the cordial words of Hun- 
ter's farewell address : " Sir, when we reflect upon your past 
conduct, your just, mild, and tender administration, it heightens 
the concern we have for your departure, and makes our grief such 
as words can not trul}^ express." 

Some facts of a personal nature constitute his successor again 
an interesting figure among the series of New York's governors. 
He was quite up to his immediate predecessor in mental status 
and moral character, a thing that can not be said of those who 
succeeded him. While not of the nobility of England, he was 
the son of a father exalted in position, prominent in the counsels 
of the nation, and high in the favor of its sovereigns. For Gov- 
ernor William Burnet was the son of that Bishop Gilbert Burnet, 
who was the friend and confidant of Queen Mary, and he pos- 
sessed also a goodly share of the confidence of King William. It 
was due to his intervention that William and Mary w^ere led to 
understand each other, whereby former estrangement was re- 
moved, and a beautiful devotion to each other became the rule 
of their existence. William Burnet was born at The Hague in 
March, 1688, and he bore the name of the Prince of Orange, who 
was sponsor at his baptism. It may have been a source of some 
gratification to tlie Dutch element in his province that his nativ- 
ity was attended by these auspicious circumstances. He grew 
up under the tutelage of his father and of his father's distin- 
guished friend, Sir Isaac Newton, and imbibed tastes of a mingled 
literary and scientific character. He brought with him a tele- 
scope eighteen feet long, and with quadrant and pendulum of 
special excellence, he, for the first time, calculated the precise 
latitude and longitude of the fort in New York City. A paper of 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 181 

his on " Jupiter's Satellites " was published in the Transactions 
of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1724. 

Perhaps not quite so commendable was his dabbling in the- 
ology and biblical interpretation, whereb}^ he was seduced into 
vagaries about the proper reading of the i>rophets and into pre- 
dicting certain events from the book of Daniel. One chronicler 
tells us that " he was the terror of young preachers, for, no matter 
if they had been licensed by the bishop of London, the governor 
would give them a text and a Bible and shut them up in a room 
for a certain time to prepare a sermon, and if it did not satisfy 
him they were not suffered to preach in his dominions." 

In spite of these bookish tendencies, Burnet had not been 
without experience in public affairs. He held the office of con- 
troller-general of the customs of Great Britain at the time of 
his appointment as governor of New York, with a salary of £1,200, 
The change of positions was the result of a sort of barter between 
himself and Governor Hunter. They were kindred spirits in many 
ways, and warm friends, and when the latter wished to return 
to England he proposed to let Burnet have the governorship, 
while he should become controller, although the salary was 
less. The Lords of Trade ratified the exchange, the two men being 
equally favorites at court. Queen Anne had died in 1715, and 
the first George of Hanover was now king. He apj^ointed Burnet 
governor on April 19, 1720, Sailing from England on July 10, he 
arrived at New York in September. 

Aside from the many qualifications calculated to make him 
acceptable to the people of his government, he was in a condition 
to make himself endeared to the community by a peculiarly inti- 
mate relation with some of its members. Burnet was only thirty- 
two years old, but he was already a widower. A half year or more 
after his arrival the town began to talk of his devotion to one 
of its fair maidens, Miss Maria van Home, twenty years of age, 
and one of the belles of the colonial capital. They were married 
in June, 1721. " The worthy citizens of New York," a lady assures 
us, " were much elated at this compliment to native charms and 



182 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

beauty, and accepted it as if bestowed on themselves, rather than 
on the bride." 

A olimpse of the manners of the day is afforded by the same 
authority : " The honeymoon was spent at the Livingston manor 
house, wliich was put at the disposal of the governor, and the 
bridal party went up the river in their yacht, but on their return 
they drove down the banks of the Hudson in their own chaise, 
making the journey leisurely and stopping at the houses of their 
friends." Only six years of happiness were allotted to the pair, 
for on August 7, 1727, Mrs. Burnet died in giving birth to her 
third chikl. The governor was inconsolable at the blow, and he 
survived his wife only two years and one month, dying at Boston 
on September 7, 1729, aged forty-one years. 

Governor Burnet addressed himself to the task of stopping 
an abuse which illustrated the integrity and unselfishness of his 
character, but which brought him much bitter antagonism. It 
was a dangerous thing to interfere with the " honest " Dutch 
citizens of the province in their peculiar trade methods, for the 
region of their pockets was a very sensitive portion of their 
anatomy. The commerce of the province had not as yet attained 
formidable proportions. In 1692 the total revenue of the prov- 
ince derived from the activities of commerce and other business 
from customs excise, quit-rents, weigh-houses, and fines was 
£3,202, 17s., and it maintained itself at this average for several 
years. In 1700 the total revenue had risen to £5,400, and again 
for several years in succession it kept up an average of about that 
figure. 

As for that important department of industry — manufactures 
— it was deliberately and systematically discouraged by the au- 
thorities at home. The people of New York were eager and ready 
to put forth their energies, and enterprise, and wealth along this 
line; but they were solemnly forbidden to do anything "to the 
prejudice of our manufactorys at home." Nevertheless, their 
hands could not be kept altogether idle. Caleb Heathcote, of the 
council, a large landowner in Westchester County, wrote to the 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



183 



Lords of Tra<le iu 170S that the people of the province were 
" already so far advanced in their nianiifactoryes that f of ye 
linen and wollen they use is made among them, especially the 
coarser sort." 

He himself was anxious to engage in ship-building. " 1 hoped 
and believed, and am morally sure," he wrote, "■ as to myself, 
even beyond a doubt, that I could have built and furnished the 
crown with all the light frigates that would have been wanted 
for this coast and the West Indies." He was not permitted to do 
so. Business greatly improved after the Peace of Utrecht iu 1713. 
Between the years 
1717 and 1720 the 
imports from year 
to year rose to the 
average of £21,254 
worth of goods; 
while the exports 
of various kinds 
attained the aver- 
a g e annual 
amount of £52,239. 
The one item of 
furs alone was rep- 
resented b}^ £8,443 
per annum. 

It was just this part of the export business that Governor 
Burnet felt in duty bound to assail, for it involved certain prac- 
tices wholly reprehensible from the statesman's standpoint, how- 
ever desirable from that of the merchant bent on gain without 
regard to means. The furs sent abroad by New York merchants 
were obtained from traders at Albany, who, in their turn, secured 
the valuable peltries to a large extent not by the vigorous pur- 
suit of the business in the far western forests, as had been done 
of yore, but by the more easy and profitable method of luring the 
Caaadian Indians down to Albany and giving them in exchange 







THE PHILIPSE MANOR HOUSE. 



184 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

the usual goods that Indians prized so highly, and which were 
obtained again from the importing merchants at New York. 

Francis Parkman describes the process as follows : " The con- 
verted Iroquois at Caughnawaga played a peculiar part. . . . 
By w-ay of Lake Champlaiu and the Hudson they brought to 
Albany furs from the country of the far Indians, and exchanged 
them for guns, bhinkets, cloths, knives, beads, and the like. 
These they carried to Canada and sold to the French traders, 
who, in this way, and often in this alone, supplied themselves 
witli the goods necessary for bartering furs from the far Indians. 
This lawless trade went on even in time of war. ... It was 
injurious to English interests; but the fur traders of Albany, 
and also the commissioners charged with Indian affairs, being 
Dutchmen converted by force into British subjects, were, with a 
few eminent exceptions, cool in their devotion to the British 
crown; while the merchants of the port of New York, from whom 
the fur traders drew their supplies, thought more of their own 
profits than of the public good. The trade with Canada not only 
gave comfort and aid to the enemy, but continually admitted 
spies into the colony, from whom the governor of Canada gained 
information touching English movements and designs." 

Evidently an honest governor of New York must stop this 
nefarious trade, even at the risk of incurring the displeasure of 
the merchants and traders of the two cities of the province. At 
the first session of the Assembly Burnet laid before the members 
a statement of the above facts, pointing out their deleterious 
attending circumstances, and as the result of his urgency and 
arguments, an act was passed prohibiting the sale of '•'■ Indian 
goods " to the French, or their Indian agents, upon any terms, 
under penalty of the forfeiture of the goods and a fine of one 
hundred pounds. The fur trade now again fell into a greater 
number of hands instead of being a monopoly; and the one 
article of " strouds " rose at Montreal from thirteen pounds to 
twenty-five pounds apiece, while at Albany it was only ten 
pounds. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 185 

Thus it became an advantage for the fur traders to avoid Mon- 
treal and come to Albany for their goods, getting more and better 
for a less amount of peltries. It put an end also to the constant 
incursion of French spies. But the big importers who had en- 
joyed a monopoly of the fur trade vowed vengeance upon the 
honest and patriotic governor, and succeeded finally in getting 
him removed. Yet the effect upon business in general of the 
governor's policy was obviously beneficial. From 1720 to 1723, 
while imports remained at the figure previously quoted (or 
£21,251 annually), exports increased to an average of nearly 
£55,000 yearly; while during the years 1723 to 1727 the annual 
average of imports became £27,180, and of exports £73,000. There 
still lingered upon the high seas the bane of piracy, so that in 
this way commerce remained hampered. But what Professor 
Fiske calls the " Golden Age of Pirates " was nearing its end, 
so that, as he says, " by 1730 the fear of pirates was extin- 
guished." 

Burnet did not propose to deal with the Indian question by 
acts of legislature alone. His Indian policy included energetic 
personal eft'orts, and various measures of sound practical utility 
for the present as well as for the future. There was, in Septem- 
ber, 1721, the customary conference between the governor and 
the general council of the Five Nations, who, by this time, how- 
ever, had become the " Six Nations." The tribe of the Tuscaroras 
had their ancestral home within the bounds of the colony of 
North Carolina. They resented the influx of colonists increasing 
with the growing years, and determined to make one bold stroke 
for the recovery of territory they deemed their own. The stroke 
took the form of indiscriminate massacre and incendiarism with- 
out the formality of a declaration of war. 

In return a force of six hundred determined w^hites marched 
into the forest, sought out the stronghold of the tribe, defeated 
them with a loss of three hundred of their warriors in battle, 
besieged, took, and burned their castle, so that a thousand of 
their number paid the penalty for their assault on the settle- 



186 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

inents. They recognized their cause as hopeless, retired from 
North Carolina, and asked to be taken into the league of the 
Iroquois, who were their kindred. The remnant of the Tuscaroras 
was thus incorporated and became the Sixth Nation, taking up 
their abode in New York State in some part of the Long House 
between Schenectady and Niagara, that was getting gradually 
reduced to shorter measurement. This event occurred about 
1713. 

Governor Burnet, therefore, met chief sachems of the enlarged 
confederacy when he went to Albany in 1721. A very numerous 
company of Indians attended the council, and he was duly in- 
vested with the ancient title of Corlaer. Philip Livingston, the 
son of Robert Livingston, was appointed Indian superintendent 
in the place of his father, at the latter's request, as he began to 
feel the burden of age. The governor also utilized the son of 
Peter Schuyler to carry on the traditions of another family in the 
way of treaty ^A'ith the Indians. He established a trading-post 
on Lake Ontario, and placed it in charge of eight young men, 
under the leadership of Peter Schuyler^ the younger. 

Burnet's persuasions at the conference bore gratifying fruit. 
He had asked the Iroquois " to open a broad path and sweep it 
clean for the far Indians to come through to Albany." The very 
next spring twenty of the tribes of the far west, bearing precious 
furs, came through the territory of the Long House to Albany; 
and in June no less than eighty arrived there, having come a 
distance of a thousand miles, leaving Montreal and the French 
traders far to the north. This was exactly what Burnet had 
aimed at in stopping the former methods of the Indian trade. He 
added to the offense awakened thereby in the minds of the inter- 
ested parties by making still further provisions for honest deal- 
ings with the untutored savages. 

It had been the custom for the traders at Albany to take the 
Indians having peltries to sell into their houses, and there plying 
them with the rum they loved too well to effect more profitable 
bargains. At Burnet's instance the Assembly passed an act 



^^ tnjL0tMarrL /^ fffT/^ 



'iPht^ot^n 



Ji^..^ //fee ^^ ^^y^i:^^^^..^^ 






^a-'^i-' 



^ ^^^^,^^ j^^^v«^ ,^C/^^^.:**--3' ^^j^^^^^-^y^ (^^^^py 

FACSIMILE OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER BY LEISLER. 



188 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

in 1723 ordering that two large wooden houses be erected w^here 
the trade with the Indians must be publicly conducted. Under 
the lead of Governor Burnet, also, a congress of governors and 
commissioners was called at Albany in 1722 in order to consider 
the question of dealing with the Red Men. New York always 
enjoyed the immense advantage of the friendship and alliance 
of the most powerful and most nearly civilized confederacy of 
Indians, and the aim of this conference was to secure the assist- 
ance of the Six Nations in restraining the hostilities of the tribes 
of the east who were so constantly harassing New England. 

It w^as not wise to depend upon the volatile Indian allies alone, 
however, although they had often proved a safeguard and a 
bulwark against white and red enemies from Canada. Hence 
Burnet induced the Assembly to provide for the repairing of the 
fortifications at Albany and Schenectady. He also set about 
carrying out a scheme recommended at the conference of gov- 
ernors : to establish a chain of fortified posts on the borders along 
the shores of lakes and rivers threatened by the French. Unfor- 
tunately this plan was not carried out, because either of the 
apathy or the poverty of the English colonies. Yet the menace 
of French invasion was emphasized by their doing the very thing 
the English should have done. In 1720 they secured the reluctant 
consent of the Senecas to build a fort on the Niagara River, and in 
spite of the attempt of the Senecas themselves to stop it, it was 
done. A still bolder project was the erection by the French of a 
fort at Crown Point, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, 
and thus well within the borders of New York province. 

To oppose these encroachments of the enemy, a chain of forts 
should have defended the entire frontier. But the Assembly 
could not be moved to act in the matter. All that was done, 
therefore, must be placed to the credit of Governor Burnet alone. 
He selected a spot on Lake Ontario which had often been the 
favorite point for a descent of the enemy, either white or red. It 
was where the Oswego River emptied into the lake. He nego- 
tiated for a tract of land here with the natives, who at first de- 



THE EMPIRE STATE Ii\ THREE CENTURIES. 189 

clined, but later became more generous and gave to England 
a strip of territory sixty miles wide, running all along the banks 
of Lake Ontario, Niagara Kiver, and Lake Erie, from the Oswego 
River to Cleveland, in Ohio. This would have given the English 
a great chance for establishing their chain of forts. 

Burnet, however, could get an appropriation of only £300 for 
a fort at the mouth of the Oswego. But he had the matter so 
nearly at heart that he went on nevertheless and constructed, 
at an outlay of £600 of his own money, a stone blockhouse, loop- 
holed for defense by musketry. A small garrison was quartered 
there, composed of men drawn from four different companies, 
maintained in the province, at the cost of England. The spot was 
judiciously chosen. The French of Canada were almost tempted 
to risk a renewal of the war, in order to destroy it. When open 
assault was deemed inexpedient, they tried to persuade the Six 
Nations to destroy Fort Oswego; but here, too, they were foiled. 
The English fort completely neutralized the advantage pre- 
viously secured to the French by building Fort Niagara. 

Just as Governor Burnet had expected, Oswego became the 
center of the Indian trade, quite to the neglect of the more 
western French establishment. A little greater angle in crossing 
Lake Ontario brought the traders to Oswego, and thus nearer 
their market at Albany, saving a great portion of an inconvenient 
land-route, and b}' means of the Oswego and other rivers and 
lakes, with short portages between, affording convenient access 
to their destination. Thus, in the j-ear 1727, was made a begin- 
ning of one of the cities far west of Albany. It was a lonely post 
for civilized men to occupy, but nature had marked it out, not 
only as a vantage ground in war, but as an advantageous seat for 
commerce and manufacture. 

In the course of our narrative thus far, we have noticed a 
cordial support of Governor Burnet in all his measures by the 
Provincial Assembly. The Assembly, indeed, seemed to have 
been so impressed with the honest and unselfish character of the 
governor that they even allowed themselves under his rule to 



190 



THE EMPIUK STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



take ji backward step in their pronoimced policy on the annual 
revenue. They granted him the revenue for a term of five years 
at ome, for which neither Lovelace nor Hunter had been able 
to obtain a moment's consent. He departed from the usual cus- 
tom of dissolving an Assembly on the arrival of a new governor, 
retaining the one elected under Governor Hunter in 1714. It 
was thus in existence for the extraordinary term of eleven years. 
Yet while this secured harmony in the lower legislative body, 

and made them cordial 
in their support of Bur- 
net's measures, as re- 
lated, the question of dis- 
solution raised against 
him formidable oppo- 
nents in the council. 
Peter Schuyler, Adolph 
Philipse, and five others 
very strongly urged that 
the customary course be 
taken. The governor not 
only refused to take their 
advice, but threatened to 
report Schuyler for hav- 
ing permitted the slight 
irregularity of placing 
the provincial seal in the 
custody of Philipse, 
whereas he himself, as president, should have retained it. Such 
a threat was too much for the high-toned and spirited Schuyler, 
upon whose name there never was the slightest breath of re- 
proach. He resigned from the council, as did also Philipse and 
the others on their side. In the stead of the two former, Burnet 
recommended two men destined to play an important part in the 
history of the colony — Dr. Cadwallader Colden and lawyer James 
Alexander. 




JACOB LEISI.ERS RESIDENCE, THE FIRST BKICK 
HOUSE ERECTED IN NEW AMSTERDAM, BUILT BY 
BALDWIN VANDERVEEN. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 191 

It is to be regretted that Governor Buruet awakened against 
himself the antagonism of so respectable a person as Peter Schu}^- 
ler. His aims were so noble, and his efforts to secure proj^er 
legislation so patriotic, that he needed the support of the best 
men. For, as the result of his effective measures against the 
r^rench trade, he soon drew down upon him the by no means 
despicable hostility of the men who had been injuring the State 
for the benefit of their pockets. They gave him every possible 
annoyance at home, and abroad they were tireless in their en- 
deavors to get the king to disallow the Act of the Assembly that 
had stopped their business, and finally the authorities in England 
were blind enough to accede to their representations, and re- 
pealed the act in 1729. 

When the end of the five years for which the revenue was 
granted approached, and the governor asked that another grant 
be made for three years, his enemies had secured sufficient fol- 
lowing even in the Assembly to defeat the passage of the act. 
Thereupon Burnet finally dissolved the " long Assembly," as it 
might have been called. The newly elected Assembly met in 
September, 172G, and was still more inclined to antagonize the 
governor. Adolph Philipse had been made speaker of the pre- 
vious Assembly, and "was elected again at the present session. 
The opposition complained of the establishment of the Court of 
Chancery, presided over by the governor, which they claimed he 
had illegally created without the consent of the Assembly, and 
was a menace to the liberties of the people. 

They were also aided in their schemes to get rid of the governor 
by the change of kihgs; In 1727 George II. succeeded to the 
throne, and it was soon known that Burnet was no favorite of his, 
but that he had the governorshix) of New York in mind for one 
who was a close personal attendant. Thus at last came the order 
which ended Governor Burnet's term in New York. Against his 
wishes not only, but in the face of his express petition to be re- 
tained in the government of New York, he was transferred to 
Massachusetts. His disappointment was the more keenly felt in 



192 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



that it fell upon a heart made sore by the death of his youthful 
wife. Soon after the arrival of his successor, in April, 1729, he 
departed to his new seat of government at Boston. 

His career there was not a prosperous one. He was instructed 
to insist upon a grant of revenue for five years, and it was per- 
sistently refused. The struggle, however, was not destined to 
be for long. On driving on the narrow causeway between Boston 
and Cambridge, the tide being particularly high and partly cov- 
ering the road, the carriage struck a hole and upset. Burnet fell 
into the water and caught a severe cold, which ended fatally on 
September 7, 1729. He was but forty-one years old. The testi- 
mony of the historian, Smith, expresses the sentiment that rose 
again to the surface when party spirit had ceased to warp hearts 
or blind eyes in New York province : " We never had a governor," 
he writes, " to whom the colony is so much indebted as to him." 



^t^iJ^^^^Z 




leisler's autograph and seal. 



CHAPTER YII. 

THE PRESS IN CONFLICT WITH (iOVERNMENT, 

E have now fairly entered upon the period of the " four 
Georges." If there was anything inspiring or great 
about that section of Englisli history, it was not due 
to the four sovereigns who bore tlie name of George 
in succession. No more fearful arraignment of their mental in- 
capacity and moral baseness or brutality is to be found anywhere 
than in the novelist Thackera^^'s lectures or essays bearing the 
title of " The Four Georges." Yet he simply recites facts in their 
personal bearing or history, without any attempt at pasquinade 
or denunciation. He sums up their merit as rulers in a brief 
sentence : " It was lucky for us that our first Georges were not 
more high-minded men. Our chief troubles began when we got 
a king who gloried in the name of Briton, and being born in the 
country proposed to rule it. He was no more fit to govern Eng- 
land than his grandfather and great-grandfather, who did not 
try." 

Of this array of noble kings, perhaps as little respectable as 
any of them, was the man the opening of whose reign inau- 
gurated a new administration for New York. When he has hiid 
George II. away in his tomb, Thackeray says of him : " Here 
was one who had neither dignity, learning, morals, nor wit; who 
tainted a great society by a bad example; wdio, in youth, man- 
hood, old age, was gross, low, and sensual." An American writer, 
playing on the phrase that George II. was " by the grace of God 
king," etc., remarks : " Very few kings have had less claim to the 



194 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

grace or favor of any one, human or divine. He was selfish, 
cruel, a bad son, a bad husband, ignorant, narrow, vain. His 
ministers and friends in general were not unlike him." 

This last observation is particularly in point as we reflect that 
it was to make way for a favorite and personal attendant that so 
excellent a man and governor as William Burnet was removed 
from the government of New York, The province had had its 
share of good, bad, and indifferent chief magistrates before that 
irretrievably bad specimen, Cornbury. But after him there had 
now been a series of excellent selections in Lovelace, Hunter, and 
Burnet. Subsequently we shall see that a policy seemed to 
prevail and to be put into frequent practice that a bad appoint- 
ment from England was better than a decent and acceptable 
governor who niigh.t offer from among the colonists. 

John Montgomerie, Esq., Avho was appointed governor of New 
York by George II. immediately upon his accession, was a native 
of Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and some historians decorate him 
with the title of colonel. Whatever may have been his record as 
a soldier, he was now a civilian, occupying a seat in Parliament. 
He was also a courtier, in close personal relation to the king as 
groom of the bedchamber. This, according to the hint cited 
above, would argue for the new governor neither great mental 
capacity nor much moral elevation. Yet Montgomerie's brief 
career in America did not reveal any departures from moral recti- 
tude, and while he lacked brilliancy of mind he was not a fool, 
if we accept the principle which we saw laid down recently that 
a man who is a fool is not a fool if he knows he is a fool. Governor 
Montgomerie was consciously dull of apprehension, and frankly 
said so, declining to exercise the functions of president of the 
Court of Chancery, of which Burnet was so fond, and whereby he 
made himself so obnoxious. Montgomerie, therefore, gained 
immense popularity by his sensible abnegation. And his neutral 
character also gave him less trouble than the others had with the 
Assembly. 

About the middle of December, 1727, Governor Montgomerie 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THliEE CENTURIES. 



195 



sailed from England on his way to New York. It was a very bad 
time of the year for a sea-voyage, and Lord Lovelace's advice on 
the subject seems to have been entirely disregarded. Yet the 
wisdom of it was justified by this, his successor's, experience, 
as he was not less than five months in reaching his destination. 
A little over five days does the business for us to-day. On April 
15, 1728, therefore, Montgomerie landed at New York. He at 
once appeared before the assembled people and had his commis- 
sion read, and as New Jersey was still placed under the same 
government with New York, as in the case of so many previous 
governors, a week later he went to Perth Amboy and published 
his commission there. The Assem- 
bly elected upon the writs issued by 
the retiring governor had not yet 
met, and upon everybody's advice 
was dissolved, and a new one called 
for, which did not meet till late in 
the summer. 

Brief as this governor's term was 



destined to be, there took place in it 
one of the most notable conferences 
with the Indians of the Six Nations. 
Montgomerie first went to Albany, ^ord bellomont. 

and then to Schenectady, the coun- 
cil fires being lit at both places, and the high-flown eloquence 
of the palaver resounding now in one place and now in the other, 
as the sachems and the governor vied with one another in polite- 
ness, and one or the other by personal attendance sought to 
follow up or outdo the courtesy of his ally. In details or in effects 
there is nothing to be said to distinguish this conference from 
so many others. It lasted from October 1, 1728, to about the fifth 
or sixth of that month. The speeches are all recorded in the docu- 
mentary collections of the State, and those which were intended 
to convey the tender sentiments of King George II. toward his 
red-skinned confreres must have drawn largely upon the imagi- 




196 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

nation of the speakers. At any rate, Moutgomerie did what so 
many had done before him : he kept '' the rust off the chain " that 
linked the Indians of the League to the interests of England. 

In the history of New York City the name of Montgomerie 
stands forever attached to an instrument that has had a very 
vital connection with the progress of the metropolis. This is the 
" Montgomerie charter," succeeding Dongan's of 1686, and ex- 
tending the number of the city's officers, giving it a more perfect 
organization and a larger number of valuable privileges. It re- 
mained practically the basis of the city's government far beyond 
the devolution, and for some decades into the nineteenth cen- 
tury. 

When this charter was granted, in the year 1731, the city had 
not yet reached its first ten thousand in population. It had ex- 
tended its lines of habitation above Wall Street, where whole 
streets had been laid out and built upon, with a few church 
buildings of some pretensions to adorn them. A stage line was 
projected between Philadelphia and New York, although it does 
not appear to have been in actual operation till a year or more 
later. The commerce of the embryo metropolis was as yet of 
modest proportions. During the five years preceding i\Iont- 
gomerie's advent, imports varied from a little over twenty-one 
thousand pounds, or a hundred thousand dollars, to as many as 
thirty-eight thousand pounds and over, or say less than two hun- 
dred thousand dollars, which was the highest figure attained, 
and is credited to the year 1725-1726. In 172(S, when he began his 
administration, the figure had fallen down again to one hundred 
thousand dollars. But the exports that year were higher than in 
any of the previous five (or £78,561), excepting that very active 
twelvemonth ending in 1726, when the export business of the 
little port reached £84,850, leaving a goodly " balance of trade " 
for the colonial merchants. 

Life was comfortable and satisfying under these circumstances, 
and men and women had a chance to grow rotund and jolly, as 
tradition pictures the early Knickerbocker. Thus speaks his- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 197 

torian Smith of what he saw with his own eyes in 1732 : " The 
men coHect weekly at their clubs in the evenings, and the ladies 
in winter frequently entertain, either at concerts of music or 
assemblies, and make a very good appearance. . . . The 
richer sort keep very plentiful tables, abounding with great 
varieties of fish, flesh, and fowl, and all kinds of vegetables. The 
common drinks are beer, cider, weak punch, and Madeira wine. 
For dessert we have fruits in vast plenty of different kinds and 
various species." 

And back of the growing and prosperous little capital, the in- 
terior of the province was feeling the glow and stimulus of 
development by increasing population and consequent cultiva- 
tion. Albany County had in 1731 nearly as large a number of 
inhabitants as New York County itself, or over eighty-five hun- 
dred, but then, of course, it covered more than half of the present 
territory of the State. Ulster had a population of thirty-seven 
hundred, and Orange of not quite two thousand, while Dutchess 
stands last upon the list of counties with only about seventeen 
hundred people. Long Island rejoiced in a thriving population 
of between seventeen and eighteen thousand souls. Thus the 
whole province at the time now under discussion numbered 
fifty thousand two hundred and eighty-nine. 

Yet, while advancing, the province of New York was out- 
stripped by its neighbors. Little Connecticut had many more 
people in it at this time. William Smith attributes this 
slower progress to the fact that New York was made a sort of 
Botany Bay for the transportation of criminals from Eng- 
land. Almost every ship arriving advertised that it had on board 
men and women whose '' time " could be bought, which meant a 
^ort of white bondage or slavery for people who had forfeited 
their liberty on the other side. New York also suffered the dis- 
advantage of an exposed frontier, peculiarly attractive to French 
and Indian raiders. And a circumstance contributing not a 
little to discourage settlements in New York on a large scale 
was the prevalence there of immense holdings of land by in- 



198 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

clividuals who had the power to exercise almost feudal rights 
over those who would occupy any part of their territories. 

One public act during Montgomerie's term is worthy of espe- 
cial notice : The boundary line between New York and Connecti- 
cut had often been a subject of dispute. It had run along the Con- 
necticut, and then later been drawn further west. When Eng- 
lishmen owned the territory on both sides of it, it w^as just as far 
from settlement. For a while a line drawn twenty miles east 
of the Hudson was accepted as dividing the colonies. In May, 
1731, under Montgomerie's mild rule, with a spirit of conciliation 
filling the air, an agreement mutually satisfactory was finally 
arrived at. " A tract of sixty thousand acres," says Lossing, 
'•• lying on the Connecticut side of the line, and from its figure 
called the Oblong, was ceded to New York, and an equivalent 
in territory near Long Island Sound was surrendered to Connec- 
ticut. Hence a divergence from a straight line north and south 
seen in the southern boundary between New York and Connec- 
ticut. The Oblong is nearly two miles long." 

Montgomerie was the fourth governor of New York to die at 
his post. During the summer of 1731 the scourge of the small- 
pox visited New York, as it so often fell upon communities of 
civilized people in Europe and America before Jenner's remedy 
liad been applied to check or moderate its ravages. Within a few 
weeks five hundred out of a population of only nine thousand 
fell victims to the disease. It is not positively stated that the 
governor was attacked by the scourge, but several circumstances 
point that way. If (^ueen Mary, in the comparative seclusion of 
a palace, could not escape the smallpox in 1694, a governor's 
mansion would be no safeguard against the infection. On June 
30, 1731, he wrote his last letter to the Lords of Trade, and on 
July 1 he was dead, at five o'clock in the morning. Thus what- 
ever were the cause of death, it was no lingering disease, and may 
have been that which was raging all through the little town. 

As his demise necessitated the making of an inventory of his 
effects, we gain therefrom an interesting view of the pomp and 



THE EMPIKE STATE IN TIlliEE CENTURIES. 



199 



circumstance attending a gubernatorial magnate in colonial 
times. Montgomerie died a bachelor, and yet bis domestic ap- 
pointments included many elegant luxuries. The governor was 
the possessor of sixteen horses, for which there were sets of 
costly silver and gold bedight harness for occasions of state. 
He had also a coach and a chaise. There were Avines and liquors 
in the gubernatorial cellar to the value of twenty-live hundred 
dollars; and for a man of no such learning or literary tastes as 
Hunter and Burnet had, a library of fourteen hundred volumes 
was rather a surprising piece of propert}. There was also a 
barge of state, elegantly upholstered and covered with gayly 
colored awnings and silk hangings. '' Loving his ease, he allowed 
public affairs to flow on 
placidly, and during the 
three years of his ad- 
ministration nothing of 
special public import- 
ance occurred." 

One hour after Gov- 
e r n o r Montgomerie's 
death, at six o'clock in 
the morning of July 1, 
1731, the council of the 

province devolved the government upon one of its own number. 
It had been summoned to the mansion in the fort during the 
night, when the governor's death became imminent. It does 
not appear that the dying man was able to convey any directions 
as to the succession. But among his instructions was found the 
provision that in such an emergency as this, the oldest member of 
the council, who, always by virtue of that fact, was its president, 
should asume the office as acting-governor until the arrival of 
a duly appointed and commissioned successor from England. 

This in the present case happened to be ^Ir. Bip van Dam. He 
had entered the council in 1702, or twenty-nine years before- He 
was now about sixtv years of age, and had been born at Albany, 




SITE OF THE MILLS BUILDING, 
NEW YORK, IN 1690. 



200 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

where his father had been known as a successful trader among 
the Indians. In 1G90 Kip van Dam was already in New York City, 
and he was one among prominent merchants who w^ere mani- 
festing their antagonism to Leisler. This political affiliation 
was confirmed by his opposition to Lord Bellomont, from whose 
vigorous execution of England's trade laws, van Dam, as an 
owner of vessels, of the average or fashionable honesty of the 
day, necessarily suffered annoyance and loss. He entered Corn- 
bury's council, therefore, as a pronounced anti-Leislerian, little 
dreaming that when he himself should have become an executive 
he would give occasion to the fonnation of a popular party in 
flagrant opposition to the government. 

In 1731 van Dam was possessed of large wealth, handsome and 
aristocratic in personal appearance. He had married into one 
of the New York City families, and some of his children were 
allied by marriage to the Beekmans and Bayards of the town. 
The baptismal records of the Dutch church show a list of fifteen 
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Rip van Dam, but these did not 
all attain to maturity. It was a proud day for that church and 
all for the Dutch community when one of their own number thus 
became acting-governor. Religious services were still conducted 
in the foreign vernacular, no English pastor being called till 
more than thirty years after this, or in 1764. At home, too, 
Dutch was still the medium of familiar intercourse, and so 
thorough a Dutchman, indeed, was his excellency, the governor 
de facto, that it was said of him and of another member of the 
council, as to their facility in the use of the official language: 
'' If they understand the common discourse, 't is as much as they 
can do." 

If the nation is happy that has no annals, then perhaps New 
York must be felicitated upon the lack of history under :\I()nt- 
gomerie. It experienced, however, plenty of " annals " after the 
administration had come into the hands of his successors. Un- 
consciously to himself, and all unawares to all those who rejoiced 
in the rule of thirteen months accorded to their fellow-townsman 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 201 

or fellow-colonist, these more lively and history-making ex- 
periences began with I\ip van Dam. Troubles that shook the 
city and the province, and that led to the assertion of popular 
rights of the most far-reaching consequences, date from his 
assumption of the government. 

These troubles had their origin in the simple, almost perfunc- 
tory settlement of one obvious item, that of the fixing of his 
salary, about which there was no dispute whatever at the time. 
Yet in view of what grew out of it later, it is interesting to note 
what was done about it then. On September 3, 1731, was to be 
passed the warrant for two months' salary of the acting-governor. 
A salar}^ seems to have been the last thing to enter the minds 
of council or governor at the appointment, for even now none 
Avere ready to act upon it. The subject was referred to a com- 
mittee, of which Councilor Stephen De Lancey was chairman, 
to report at a full meeting of the council. A message was also 
sent to the speaker of the Assembly, who decorously replied that 
this body would leave the determination of the question to the 
Upper House. 

There w^as no haste in the decision, evidently, and doubtless 
Rip van Dam managed to exist during the suspense. Not until 
February 7, 1732, do we find this entry upon the minutes of the 
council : " The Warrant for the payment of the Presidents Sal- 
lary being this Day moved to the Board and the reasons for and 
against the Presidents having the whole Sallary Settled on the 
late Governour being read and ^Maturely considered of, It is the 
opinion of the Board that the President is Entitled to the whole 
Sallary and afterwards a Warrant for paying the President the 
sum of £390 for his Quarters Sallary after having been read was 
signed by his Honour." So far so good, but mischief was brew- 
ing. 

It was during van Dam's term of office that the French accom- 
plished their bold stroke of planting a fortification at Crown 
Point. They began feeling about for such an exploit as early as 
172G, experimenting with various points on the east and west 



202 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

shores of Lake Champlain. But finally, in 1731, they built Fort 
Frederick on the spot now bearing the name made historic by the 
annals both of the French and Indian War, and of the Revolution. 
Its position was a menace to New York; though surrounded by a 
vast wilderness, it was far within the actual territory of the 
province. From that coign of vantage a comparatively easy and 
swift march would enable the French to strike Albany, whence, 
Avith that place secured in the rear, there would be the chance 
for a descent on New York City. 

With the usual fairness and accuracy which old England and 
New England historians display when they treat of Dutchmen, 
AVilliam Smith succeeds in setting forth the stupidity and slow- 
ness of Mr. Van Dam : " Distinguished more for the integrity 
of his heart than his capacity to hold the reins of government," 
he intimates that Van Dam never knew what the nimble French 
had been doing until he was informed by Governor Belcher of 
Massachusetts. But original documents, now lodged at Albany, 
tell a different story. Mr. van Dam sent Belcher's letter to 
the Assembly on February 4, 1732. It was an act of courtesy 
for him so to do, and it might serve to stimulate that body to 
prompt action. 

But it was not their first information. On September 30, 1731, 
the acting-governor had sent a communication to the Assembly 
telling them what had been done at Crown Point, and urging 
them to act accordingly. And on November 3, 1731, he sent a 
letter to the Lords of Trade, embodying a copy of an " Act for 
fortifying the City of Albany." As president of the council under 
Burnet or Montgomerie, van Dam could not well have stopped 
the French alone; nor could he now, without England or the 
province at his back, go up to Lake Champlain and tear down 
Fort Frederick with his own hands. If his failure to do so con- 
stituted incapacity " to hold the reins of government," poor 
dull Dutchman that he was, we will even have to give in to 
William Smith and the history-book makers of that ilk. 

On February 4, 1732, three days before that action of the coun- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



203 



cil fixing Mr. van Dam's salary, the majestic little manikin, 
George II., appointed as Montgomerie's successor Colonel Will- 
iam Cosby. It was an appointment worthy of the source whence 
it proceeded, and condemnation of the new incumbent could 
hardly use language more severe. But his career fully justified 
the expectations and the judgment which we here record with 
l^erhaps some unfair precipitation. Cosby had borne civil office 
before; he had been governor of the Island of Minorca, off the 
Spanish coast, and the inhabitants had eagerly petitioned the 
government to remove him, 
plainly accusing him of 
theft. 

This little episode did not 
prevent his being placed in 
a more lucrative office, 
where stealing would pro- 
duce more satisfactory re- 
sults. He had married the 
sister of the Earl of Halifax, 
president of the Board of 
Trade that had charge of 



the colonies. One of his 
daughters was married 
later to the son and heir of 
the Duke of Grafton, an 
illegitimate scion of roj^alty, and there are conflicting accounts 
whether an open avowal of the match preceded the marriage, 
or whether it was clandestine. At any rate, when accomplished, 
it gave Cosby another hold on power to secure him against com- 
plaints, whatever he might do. 

Before he left England he had secured for the colonists what 
was deemed a great advantage for them, and it is said he re- 
mained in London six months after his appointment in order to 
accomplish this object. This was the defeat of the Sugar Bill, 
which was blocked after passing the Commons by Cosby's rep- 




JEREMIAS VAN RENSSELAER. 



204 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 

resentations to the Lords. In August, 1732, accompanied by his 
wife, a son, and two daughters, he arrived at New York. The 
ceremony of induction into office was soon disposed of in the 
customary manner, consisting of the parade in state to the City 
Hall in Wall Street, the reading of the governor's commission, 
the swearing in of the council, amid the salvos of musketry and 
artilleiy, and the ready huzzas of the gaping crowds. Thus began 
Governor Cosby's eventful rule. 

The character of the man who had been inflicted on New York 
was not long in exhibiting itself in its true colors. He was after 
the money, and all the money possible, that could be got out of 
the people of his province, and to get that he had secured for 
himself the governorship. With a brutally plain directness he 
made this noble aim manifest. While still in England the sum 
of £750 had been given him for his services in connection with 
the Sugar Bill. The Assembly had scarcely met when he de- 
nmnded a larger sum, and it was increased to £1,000, although 
not without some murmuring. 

The grant, even at its present figure, awakened the governor's 
contempt rather than his gratitude, as his letters to England 
show. Under the pressure of this greedy impatience the Assem- 
bly made the governor's salary £1,5C0, when it had been only 
£1,200 before; and for some extra services or expenses he men- 
tioned they allowed him £400. It would seem as if this were a 
pretty satisfactory accumulation of funds for an ordinary ava- 
rice; but the province had to deal with one of an extraordinary 
capacity. And in carrying his greed to the full limits of which 
it was capable, Cosby struck the rocks that wrecked his govern- 
ment, and gave a chance for the development of a new power 
and a new institution among the people — the freedom of the 
press. 

Governor Cosby came armed with an order from the king 
commanding Mr, van Dam to turn over to his successor half of 
the salary, emoluments, and perquisites of the office, during the 
whole of his occupancy of it. As Cosby had received the ap- 



THE e:mpike state in thuee centuries. 205 

pointment only six months before, and van Dam had acted as 
jiovernor for thirteen months, the outrageous injustice of the com- 
mand was evident on the face of it. But it was bad work dis- 
obeying or criticising a l^ing, even under the four Georges. Mr. 
Van Dam, therefore, was ready to yield to the order, only he 
insisted upon the literal fulfillment of it, which called for " an 
equal partition '' between Cosby and himself of what had been 
received by either in the service of the colony as salary and other 
perquisites. 

He made a showing which revealed that he himself had re- 
ceived in toto £1,975, 7s., lOd. He proposed to surrender half 
of this sum to Cosby. But then, on the other hand, he enumerated 
Cosby 's receipts, and showed them to have amounted to the much 
larger sum of £G,407, 18s., lOd. ; and he claimed that " the equal 
partition " ordered by the king must apply to this sum as well. 
AVhen Cosby repudiated this application, which would have made 
the rule work both ways, van Dam equally refused to divide his 
£1,900. And then Cosby brought suit against him for the re- 
covery of his share. 

The suit proved remarkable, because in the course of it we 
are brought face to face with several men of prominence and of 
commanding influence in the province, at the mention of whose 
names in connection with it we may well stop a moment for 
some biographical details, for the history of the province can not 
proceed for a generation or more after this without constant 
references to nearly all of them. It was this suit also which 
drew after it consequences which led to the conflict of the press 
with the government, a conflict which resulted in a complete 
triumph for the people. 

The suit itself is quickly summarized. It should have pro- 
ceeded under the common law. But a trial of the case on its 
merits merely was farthest from Cosby's mind. There was the 
Supreme, or Chancery Court, and the governor demanded 
that it proceed according to the rules of English courts in ex- 
chequer. Van Dam's lawyers were William Smith and James 



206 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Alexander. We have already come upon the latter as a member 
of Burnet's council in 1720. Both he and Smith came to the 
colony together in the same ship in the year 1715. They neither 
of them addressed themselves to the study of the law till after 
they came to New York, but both attained distinction and wealth 
in the profession. 

William Smith's name is of special interest to us because the 
earliest history of the province of New York, still an important 
source for much of our information, was written by a son of the 
same name, and continued from materials in his possession by 
a grandson, third of the name, both of these descendants re- 
maining on the side of the king in the Revolutionary struggle of 
later times, and leaving the country with the Tory exodus in 
1783. 

James Alexander has a different claim upon our interest. He 
was a relative of the Earl of Stirling, to whose ancestor the wdiole 
of Long Island had been granted by Charles 1. in 1C3G. Alex- 
an<ler came over as a civil engineer, empowered by Henry, fifth 
Earl of Stirling, to look up his claims in America and establish 
some right to revenue frojn these lands. The son of James was 
that William Alexander who was one of the most distinguished 
of our Revolutionary generals, and was known as Lord Stirling, 
because, by a number of changes in the family in England, the 
title descended to him, although never allowed there. It is a 
curious coincidence that Stirling's greatest claim to distinction 
rests upon his magnificent conduct in the battle of Long Island. 

In connection with this suit and the proceedings that grew 
out of it, it is of special value to read Chief Justice Daly's de- 
scription of these friends and lawyers as they made their appear- 
ance in courts and before juries : " Alexander was no speaker,*" 
says Judge Daly, " but his breadth of learning and depth of 
thought and honesty of purpose commanded universal respect 
and admiration. He possessed the knack of throwing terrible 
significance into a few well-chosen words at certain times, and 
was always a formidable antagonist. Smith was a born orator; 



THE EMl'IKE STATE IN TIIKEE CENTURIES. 



207 



speaking was no effort to him, his grandest orations were often 
impromptu. His voice was musical, which, with an attractive 
face, line presence, and great personal advantages, were very 
effective with a jury." 

Smith and Alexander as counsel for van Dam took exception 
to the transfer of the case to the Supreme Court, as having no 
jurisdiction in equity. The chief justice of the province, presiding 
over the court, was Lewis Morris, and we must stop again to say 
a word about him. He had attracted the attention of Governor 
Hunter, who had recognized in him a kindred spirit. He had 
some lands in New Jersey upon which he settled after a career 











VIEW OF NEW YOKE CITY IN GOVERNOR BURNET'S TIME. 



of wandering in foreign parts. Hunter induced him to come to 
New York and settle upon his paternal estates in Westchester 
County, where he had been born in 1671. He soon became a 
member of the council, and in 1715 Hunter appointed him chief 
justice. He, too, was the ancestor of patriots, among whom 
Gouverneur Morris occupied a conspicuous place. 

It hardly needed the combined learning and eloquence of the 
two leading lights of the law to make the plea of Van Dam's 
counsel effective. Chief-Justice Morris could not but agree with 
them, and decide that the Supreme Court was not the place for 
bringing such a suit. Then Cosby perpetrated his first act of 
despotism. Hitherto his inordinate greed had appeared to the 



208 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

people a siiflQcient menace; now he began to show his unscru- 
pulous disregard of constitutional safeguards. Cosby summarily 
deposed Lewis Morris, and appointed James De Lancey chief 
justice. 

Here, again, is a personality and a name inseparable from sub- 
sequent New York history, the name continuing quite through 
the Revolution, and then also identified with the opponents of 
liberty. He was the son of Stephen De Lancey, a member of the 
council under many governors, a Huguenot refugee who had 
amassed a large fortune at Ncav York in trade. His mother was 
a van Cortlandt. He was a graduate of the University of Cam- 
bridge, England, where he had for his tutor Dr. Thomas Herring, 
later Archbishop of Canterbury. He returned to New York in 
1725, began the practice of law, and married the daughter of 
Caleb Heathcote. For some reason he attached himself to Cosby, 
standing by him in all those acts that most disgusted his fellow- 
colonists, although during a later administration he made him- 
self very obnoxious to the governor and became the mainstay of 
the popular party. 

Having got his case before a court composed of his creatures, 
it goes without saying that Cosby won his suit against van Dam, 
but the triumph was only an apparent one. It led the governor 
on to acts of increasing arbitrariness. He had no right to depose 
one chief justice and elevate another without the consent of his 
council. All sorts of heinous offenses were laid at his door, 
amon^' them even forgery. 

Some of his acts seemed to argue almost an insanity of greed. 
He called for the deeds of lands in Albany and in New Jersey, on 
the pretext that he wished to inspect them, and then before sev- 
eral witnesses of the dastardly act threw them into the fire, de- 
claring: " Since there are now no proofs of ownership, the prop- 
erty reverts to myself." Old patents to townships on Long Islancf 
he sought to render worthless as evidences of possession, so as to 
secure fees for their reissue, or in order to seize the land himself. 
The Mohawks proved, by the presentation of a deed conveying 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 209 

lands to be held for their benefit as a trust, that grants could 
not be made by the governor of these lauds to private persons. 
By trickery as base as it was cruel and impolitic, he gained pos- 
session of that d(HMl and threw it into the fire. 

The situation und( r such a go^ ernor became simpl}^ unendura- 
ble. By secretly taking ship upon the frigate commanded by a 
Captain Norris, who was engaged to his daughter, Lewis Morris 
managed to elude the suspicious vigilance of the governor, and 
sailed for England armed with several papers containing the 
most damaging evidence against Cosby. Morris's mission was 
indorsed by the Assembly, and he urged the removal of a man 
so unworthy before the Lords of Trade. But as Cosby had saitl : 
" He had great interest in p]ugland." There was Lord Halifax, 
his wife's brother, presiding (^ver the Lords of Trade; and the 
Duke of Grafton's son was his son-in-law, and what could the 
poor colonists expect to accomplish against the most wretched 
governor thus intrenched in favor? Like a later corruptionist, 
with one hand at the people's throat and the other in their pock- 
ets, Cosby might have asked them the taunting (juestion : '' What 
are you going to do about it? " 

There was no chance to do much. Kesort was had to the 
public press, but its resources at that time were limited. There 
was only one paper published in the province, and this was 
printed and issued by William Bradford, whom Ave saw brought 
over from Philadelphia by Governor Fletcher in 1693. In the 
3^ear 1725, while Governor Burnet was in the chair, Bradford, 
then sixty-two years of age, brought out the first number of the 
Neir York Weekly (ki.tdic. Its news and advertisements covered 
both sides of a half sheet of foolscap. Prosperity attending the 
enterprise, the Gazctie was enlarged to the four sides of an entire 
sheet. But this formidable engine for the formation or expres- 
sion of public opinion was useless to the critics of Governor 
Cosby's acts, for Bradford was the government printer, drawing 
a salarj^ from the ]>ublic funds of the province. 

Still the press was to be the outlet and safety-valve for the pent- 



210 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

up indiguatiou boiling Avitliin the breasts of the injured colonists. 
It only needed to start another paper, for which there were 
money and brains in abundance, van Dam having a great plenty 
of the former requisite, while his counselors, Alexander and 
Smith, with the ex-chief justice, were well supplied with the lat- 
ter. A printer was also at hand. With the Palatine immigration 
of 1710 had come a family, one of whose children, John Peter 
Zenger, had been apprenticed to William Bradford. He was 
now set up in business for himself, almost opposite Alexander's 
residence on Broad Street, and in November, 1733, appeared the 
first number of the New York Wcckli/ Journal, the rival and 
political opponent of the Gazette, and of much the same general 
appearance. 

Now followed in rapid succession for nearly a whole year a 
variety of attacks on the governor and his acts. They were in the 
shape of letters signed b}^ various classic personages, such as 
Cato and others. Occasionally songs appeared by way of a 
change of diet, and some of these were considered so scandalous 
by the government that the attention of the grand jury was 
called to them, and it was moved by the eloquence of De Lancey 
to order the numbers of the Journal containing them to be burned 
by the common hangman. 

The merry round of squibs, and songs, and pasquinades went 
on, with wit more or less happy, with vituperation not free from 
coarseness, and personalities quite unrestrained. Again several 
numbers were ordered burned by the hangman on November 2, 
1734, and the mayor and common council, who were on the side 
of the opposition, were commanded to be present at the cere- 
mony, which they promptly declined, and in addition forbade the 
hangman to perform that function at all, so that the governor's 
adherents were fain to hire a negro to burn the papers, and se- 
cured the attendance of a few soldiers for an audience. 

Exasperated beyond all bounds of reason, the governor's party 
now went to the extremity of arresting Zenger. The arrest took 
place on November 17, 1734, and it did not lessen the sense of the 



THE EMl'lUE >STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



211 



outrage that it was efTected on a Sunday. The charge against the 
printer was, of course, that of libel. There had been a whole 
literature of libel published in his paper during the twelvemonth 
of its existence. But the accusation concentrated itself upon 
two specimens of audacity. One of these contained the awful 
words : " The people of New York think, as matters now stand, 
that their liberties and properties are precarious, and that 
slaverj^ is likely to be entailed on them and their posterity, if 
some past things be not amended." 

These expressions of alarm seem vague enough and hardly 
suflicient to serve as a basis for an action for libel. The other 
passage selected came somewhat more directl}^ to the point. It 
represented a supposititious citi- 
zen, of whom there may have 
been many examples in the flesh, 
who had made up his mind to 
emigrate from New York to 
Pennsylvania, and he explains 
his removal to a friend thus : 
" We see men's deeds destroyed, 
judges arbitrarily displaced, new 
courts erected without consent of 
the Legislature, by which, it 

seems to me, trials by juries are taken away when a governor 
pleases ; men of known estates denied their votes, contrary to the 
received practice of the best expositor of any law. Who is there 
in that province that can call anything his own, or enjoy any 
libert}^ longer than those in the administration will consent to 
let them do it? For which reason I left it, as I believe more 
will." 

The first act undertaken in aid of Zenger by his powerful 
friends was to sue out a writ of habeas corpus for him. He swore 
that his worldly possessions did not exceed £40, whereupon De 
Lancey promptly fixed his bail at twenty times that amount, 
or £800. His friends were quite able to raise that sum, but it 




JACOB LEISLER S TOMB. 



212 THE EMPIRE STATE IX THKEE CENTURIES- 

suited their purposes better to let Zenger suffer imprisonment for 
a while. He was not so closely confined or so entirely excluded 
from coiiimnnication with his wife and journeymen but that he 
was enabled to continue the conduct of his paper Avhile he was in 
jail. 

On January 28, 1735, the grand jury refused to indict Zenger, 
and release should have followed. But the court party had 
other resources. Proceedings by information were instituted by 
the attorney-general, Richard Bradley, and the poor printer was 
again held, the charges now being based definitely on the con- 
tents of Xos. 13 and 23, cited above. The trial came up en April 
]5, 1735, before the Sui)reme Court. Zenger's counsel were, of 
course, the famous pair, Alexander and Smith. The ground 
taken was a bold one. 

The lawyers objected to the validity of the judges sitting on 
the case. They had been appointed by the governor '' during 
pleasure," while the constitution recpiired they should hold 
office " during good behavior." In addition, the chief justice had 
replaced his predecessor by the mere will of the governor, when 
such an act could only be valid with the consent of council. 
Smith and Alexander blandly proposed to argue these points be- 
fore the judges, when l)e Lance}" threw another bomb into the 
camp of the popular ])arty bj' promptly disbarring the two law- 
yers. It was indeed true, as he said to them, that they had 
brought matters to a i^ass that either the judges must go from 
the bench or the laAvyers must be expelled from the bar. But it 
only added fuel to tlie fire in the inflaming of the popular mind 
against such acts of arbitrary and irresponsible despotism. The 
governor and his creatures would one day have to reckon with 
the indignation aroused. 

The prisoner's case now seemed hopeless indecMl, without com- 
petent lawyers to defen<l. The court had ap])ointed counsel for 
defense, but it was doubtful if he might not also be influenced 
in favor of the appointing power, and he certainly had not the 
prestige or the abilitv of Alexander and Smith. These men were 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 213 

not idle, and they had the whole comnumitv to back them. The 
people felt that this was their own ease, that their liberties were 
on ti'ial, and that defeat in this instance would mean disaster to 
the best interests of the province. It is stated by some historians 
that it was to this time must be traced the origin of that organi- 
zation which played so important a part in the troubles leading 
to the Revolution, the " Sons of Liberty," or "• Liberty Boys." 
Whether this was precisely the case may be doubtful, but cer- 
tainly many heads were put together in secret conclaves to 
counteract the schemes of the government. And one surprise of 
vita] moment was sprung upon the court party, which turned the 
scales effectively against them at the next trial. 

This was scheduled lo take place on August 4, 1735. Chief 
Justice De Lancey and his colleagues thought to have ever^'thing 
their own way. The former started with some irregularity in 
the proceedings, which was stopped by the protest of John 
Chambers, the counsel assigned by the court for the prisoner. 
The jury to try Zenger was what is called a "• struck jury," formed 
by striking from the panel a certain number known to belong 
to either party, and leaving finally the recjuired number of twelve 
men. Richard Rradley, the attorney-general, then opened for the 
government, citing the passages given a few pages back about 
sinking into slavery and destroying deeds, and trial by jury 
abolished. These were characterized as "• false, scandalous, and 
malicious," and for these punishment was demanded for the 
offending printer. It then became the turn for presenting Zen- 
ger's Side of the case. Such was the interest of the community 
in the issue that the court room in the old City Hall was crowded 
to the utnK)st capacity, and a great number stood without 
the building eagerly Availing for the signal as to how the verdict 
went. 

The friends of Zenger had arranged for a dramatic surprise. 
AYhen the defense of the prisoner was called upon to open, Mr. 
Chambers did not arise. A venerable figure took the floor, and, 
addressing the presiding judge, said quietly: "May it please 



214 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

your honor, I am concerned in this case on the part of Mr. Zeuger, 
the defendant." The speaker was at once recognized as Mr. 
Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, the most famous lawyer and 
most eloquent orator in the colonies. His services had been 
secretly engaged by Alexander and Smith. 

A recent historian of the gentler sex, who has succeeded in 
gleaning many a bit of valuable colonial history from the gossip 
and traditions of old families in New York, gives a lively picture 
of a trip ostensibly to Perth Amboy by Mrs. Alexander in her 
l)rivate yacht; whence she slipped, unannounced, by land to Phil- 
adelphia. Here she saw the great lawyer and secured his cordial 
acceptance of the defense of Zenger. We are told that '' Mrs. 
Alexander was thoroughly conversant with every point, and was 
in a position to state it clearly to Mr. Hamilton, and also the 
opinions of Messrs. Smith and Alexander as to the line of argu- 
ment to be used, and he was also supplied with the necessary 
papers, which tradition states were carried to Philadelphia 
quilted into Mrs. Alexander's best silk petticoat." 

Mr. Hamilton's appearance at the trial created an immense 
sensation, exactly as had been designed. He simplified the case 
for the jury's decision at one stroke, bj- waiving the necessity of 
proving the publication of the objectionable passages. He ad- 
mitted this. The attornej^-general then claimed that the matter 
was ended and that conviction must be the verdict. Hamilton 
corrected him promptly, and said that it was now his place to 
prove that the passages were a libel on the governor. De Lancey 
thought to corner the veteran counsel by bringing forward the 
X)eculiar ruling which had been in force in such cases heretofore, 
that the truth of the statements in a libel made no difference 
as to the libel — that, in fact, the truth only made the libel worse. 
Hamilton retorted with telling effect that this ruling did very 
well for the star-chamber days of Charles II., but that times had 
changed and that complaints of injustice against a ruler or his 
laws were now recognized as the right of subjects. 

De Lancey thereupon refused to allow" the proofs of the libel 



THE EMPIRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 



215 



to be broujj;lit forward. Instead of being nonplussed by such an 
outrageous decision, Hamilton replied : " I thank your honor, 
and, turning to the jury, said: " Gentlemen of the jury, to you 
we must now appeal for witnesses of the facts we have offered 
and are denied the liberty to prove; you are to be judges of the 
law and the facts.'' The aged speaker, bearing the weight of 
full eighty jears, then commenced an address, which lasted for 
hours, upon ever^^ word of which the hearers hung breathless, 
thrilling the hearts of the popular party with ideas pleasing to 
them, but never raised to such an elevation of moral rectitude or 
patriotic unselfishness, while at the same time reading severe 
lessons of warning to those whose business it had been to outrage 
the people's sense of justice 
and to oppress them by ar- / 
bitrarj^ acts. " Shall not the 
oppressed have even the 
right to complain; shall the 
press be silenced that evil 
governors may have their 
way?" the orator ex- 
claimed. 

Alluding to the fact that ^ity hall, new yokk, m 1700. 

the grand jurj^ would not 

indict his client, and that the case was instituted by " informa- 
tion " on the part of the attorney-general, Hamilton said : '' The 
practice of information for libels is a sword in the hands of a 
wicked king and an arrant coward, to cut down and destroy the 
innocent." He took the bold ground that no governor can claim 
support or allegiance " who goes about to destroy a province or 
its privileges, which, by His Majesty, he was appointed, and by 
the law he is bound to protect and encourage." As one has well 
said: "■ It would be impossible to give any distinct idea of this 
wonderful speech. Its chief trait that raises it above all others 
is its prophetic novelty. In the midst of the dim, unfixed notions 
of the age of monarchy and tyranny, it brings into a clear light 




216 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

all the priiR-ipk'S of free speech and free thought that rule among- 
us to-daj." The peroratiou has beeu (luoted in many histories, 
but it win bear fre(iuent repetition, and ean never be read too 
often. He closed in the following words, having spoken of the 
olory and necessit}^ of the defense of freedom : 

'' I am truly unequal to such an undertaking on nmny accounts, 
an<l you see I lab(»r under the weight of many years, and am 
borne down with great infirmities of body; yet old and weak 
as I am, I should think it my duty, if required to go to the utmost 
part of the land, where my services could be of use in assisting 
to quench the flame of prosecutions set on foot by the government 
to depri\-e a people of the right of remonstrating and complain- 
ing, too, of the arbitrary attempts of men in power. But to con- 
dude: the question before the court and you, gentlemen of the 
jury, is not of small or private concern; it is not the cause of a 
poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying. 
No! It may in its consequences affect every freeman that lives 
under a British government on the main of America. It is the 
best cause, it is the cause of liberty! 

" And I make no doubt but your upright conduct to-day will 
not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow-citizens, 
but every one who prefers freedom to slavery will bless and 
honor you as men who hav(^ baflled the attempts of tyranny, and 
by an impartial and uncorrupt verdict have laid a noble founda- 
tion for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors 
that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a 
right — the liberty both of exposing and opposing arbitrary 
power, in these parts of the world at least, by speaking and writ- 
ing the truth." 

Nothing could resist the force of this appeal among a people 
who cared a straw for their liberty or their self-respect. Bradley 
demand( d the conviction of Zenger; the chief justice charged 
with unscrupulous partiality that the jury must convict him. It 
mattered not. These feeble attempts to stop the tide were 
brushed aside by the onrushing wave of enthusiasm swelling 




""^^/y^ ^^^.^'^^^^ 



THE E.MPIUE STATE IN TIIUEK C'KXTlTaEH. 217 

among the i)eople. It carried upon its crest tlu' jiiiy in wliose 
hands was the fate of the prisoner. Tlie v(^rdict was instanta- 
neous : " Not guilty.'' A shout of exultation shook the building, 
and it was taken up b,v the crowds in Wall Street and Bi'oad 
Street. The poor printer was released from duress, and pub- 
lished his Joiii-iial for many a year thereafter. The cause of the 
people had been vindicated. The press had achieved a signal 
triumph in its conflict witli an oppressiAe and arbitrary govern- 
ment. And the cry the '' Liberty of the Press," raised to the echo 
in free Xew York, was taken up with fervor in the other colo- 
nies. 

Governor Cosby lived less than a year after this serious rebuke. 
As we remarked of Cornbury, his badness as an ofticial an<l a 
man really was of great service to the colony he sought to injure. 
The acts of these men opened the eyes of the people to the possi- 
bilities of mischief that lay within their power, if not opposed 
and restricted, and thus they were taught to guard their own in- 
terests, and to adopt measures that had in them ever more and 
more of the principles of self-government. The Assembly was 
not dissolved, but it was not permitted to meet except at long 
and uncertain intervals, as it suited the humor of the governor. 
In 1734 it met and made several advances. Quakers were given 
the privilege of making afflrmation instead of taking oaths, 
which gave them the right of sitting in the Assembly, whence 
they had been excluded in 1G91. 

A complaint of Attorney-General Bradley reveals the fact 
that the Assembly attached as riders to appropriations " some 
bill injurious to His Majesty's prerogative and interest, which 
must be complied with or no money can be had for the necessary 
support of the government." Taught by Cosby's conduct, the 
Assembly, in 1734, passed an act providing for the election of a 
new assembly every three years, so that business sliould not be 
hampered by the governor's refusal either to call or to dissolve 
the body. This could hardly expect to obtain the approval of the 
governor, but it was one of those " previous and open steps which 



218 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

a dependent proviuce tau take to render themselves independent 
at their pleasure." 

Cosby had become a sufferer from consumption, developed in 
the severe climate of New York. As most patients of that disease, 
he alternated between hopes of recovery and fears of a speedy 
termination. The winter of 1735-1730 was rather more trying 
tlian usual, and the governor's mansion in the fort was exposed 
to the full sweep of the wintry blasts across the wide bay. Every- 
thing pointed to a fatal result as the winter drew to a close. 

There was not much to insure mental comfort while the con- 
sumption was advancing in its stages. The Zenger trial was only 
shortly in the past, and it had had its echoes in England, where 
even Cosby's " great interest " could not blind the authorities to 
the fact that he had made a mistake in exasperating the people 
of his province. Their ears were now lent more willingly to the 
tales of fraudulent acts and violations of deeds and trusts. The 
royal council ruled that Lewis Morris had been illegally removed 
from the office of chief justice. They did not go to the length of 
demanding the deposition of De Lancey, but they thought to 
compensate Morris by making him governor of New Jersey. Alto- 
gether, the tables ai^peared to be turning, and it is likely if Cosby 
had lived he would have been recalled. 

About March 1, 1736, there w^as every indication that the gov- 
ernor's end was near. In the extremity of death, however, he 
contemplated and perpetrated a final and supreme act of tyr- 
anny. The appointment or removal of members of the provin- 
cial council was a matter scrupulously exercised by the au- 
thorities at home alone, who only accepted recommendations on 
the subject from the governors. Usually the members of the 
council were enumerated one by one in the instructions, and if 
changes seemed expedient after the governor arrived on the 
ground, these were made after due report and recommendation 
to the Lords of Trade. To illustrate how stringent was this rule, 
we need only mention that Uip van Dam was still a member of 
Cosby's council, after all that had happened between the two 
men. 



THE EMPIRE STxVTE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



219 



As such, of course, he was still also the seuior member and the 
president, and upon him would again fall the government in 
case of Cosbj's death. This the dying governor determined to 
prevent, and he did not hesitate to resort to the desperate ex- 
pedient of removing van Dam from the council. A secret meet- 
ing was called in Cosby's bed-chamber, and at that session, in 
itself flagrantly illegal, he ordered the president's name to be 
stricken from the list of members, whereby George Clarke, once 
secretary of the province, and now next in seniority to van Dam 
in the council, became 
president, and the succes- 
sor to the chief direction 
of affairs. 

Nothing was known of 
this on March 7, 1736, 
when Cosby breathed his 
last. Then, at the first 
meeting of the council to 
arrange for the continu- 
ance of the government, 
the secret came out as 
van Dam was about to 
assume the office that was 
his by right. The obse- 
quious council ratified the 
illegal act of the dead 
governor, only one man of the council supporting van Dam's con 
tentions. But the latter had the whole colony back of him, as 
well as the right of the situation. He assumed the government 
as president of council, and demanded the provincial seal from 
Mrs. Cosby (or, to be correct. Lady Grace Cosby). He also went 
on appointing a new mayor and other city officers, and when 
Clarke and his adherents intrenched themselves in the fort and 
put the garrison under arms, the resolute van Dam called out 
the militia, who responded with a will. Thus the miserable Cosby 




LEWIS MORRIS. 



/' 



/ 



220 THE KMl'IUK STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 

had left strife and peril for the proviuee as a legacy even after 
bis death. 

The town and province remained nuder the threat of actual 
civil war until October. When it seemed as if the calamity could 
no longer be averted, the solution came from England in the 
shape of a commission as lieutenant-governor for Oeorge Clarke. 
It was a very peculiar proceeding on the part of a well-con- 
stituted government thus to condone and vindicate flagrant and 
riotous illegality. I>ut the " great interest " was still at work. 
The relatives of Cosby in high station could not afford to have his 
record raked up by sucli a successor as van Dam. It was safer 
for all around to hush up and cover up the clamorous and nasty 
past, and Ceorge Clarke could be trusted to do it. Perhaps it 
was a concession that his ofiice was entitled lieutenant-governor, 
for he was in the chair for seven ^^ears, longer than many a gov- 
ernor before or after liim. 

George Clarke had come to the province in 1703, while Corn- 
bury A\as governor. His wife's name was Anne Hyde, which 
indicates relationship to Cornbury. He was a lawyer b}' pro- 
fession and was appointed secretary of the province. He began 
early to make his position tell upon his fortunes, and in course of 
time he obtained a seat as one of the council. It was, therefore, 
as second in seniority that he would have properly succeeded 
Cosby, if van Dam had been properly removed from the council. 
But the fiat had gone forth from England that the mantle of 
gubernatorial dignity and office should descend upon the English- 
man in preference to the native colonist, and before that will the 
l)rovincials were fain to bow. 

And it was soon seen that things had mended. Clarke had 
seen too much of the trouble that his predecessor had brought 
upon himself and upon the colony to wish to pursue a career in 
imitation of his. A grievance against Cosby which even his 
council had felt deeply, and had made them join their own to 
the stream of complaints constantly flowing to England, was 
that the late governor had persisted in sitting with them and 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIItEE CENTUIUES. 221 

voting as a. member, when tiiey met as a sort of upper house of 
the Legislature. Clarke carefully refrained from doing so, and 
thereby much gratified the council. 

To the Assembly that met in the autumn of 1736 he sent an 
address, in which he urged various measures of public utility. 
When it met in May, 1737, he dissolved it, as it had been in ex- 
istence for nine years. In view of the recent agitations, his 
action in securing the election of a new assembly that should 
more closely reflect the opinions of the day, was very commenda- 
ble, and even courageous. ^Yllen it met, it instituted a new 
custom, that of recording the ayes and noes in votes on bills. It 
re-enacted the bill for triennial assemblies, which obtained 
Clarke's signature, but was vetoed in England. In answer to the 
usual request for a vote of revenue for a term of years, they 
declared that they could not '• continue w hat support or revenue 
they shall raise f(tr any longer time than one year." They apolo- 
gized for being plain spoken, but felt called upon to tell the 
lieutenant-governor frankly that '' he was not to expect that 
they would either raise sums unfit to be raised or put what thej 
should raise into the power of a governor to misapply." 

The Assembly that met Clarke in 1739 first definitely took the 
step toward which those under Cornbury and Hunter ha<l been 
tending. Besides making its appropriations for the carrying- 
on of the government for one year only, this Assembly made 
them also in definite sums for specific purposes, and then capped 
the climax by voting the salaries to officials by name. Here 
was the encroachment of the legislative upon the executive de- 
partment, for it was to be expected if an obnoxious name stood 
connected with a salary to be voted, the vote might not be forth- 
coming till another name appeared. 

Two years after they were disbarred, Williani Smith and 
.Tames Alexander were again reinstated as practitioners. They 
liad instituted suits for damages, but Chirke, of his own motion, 
wont 1o th<'m and ofl'ored to see tlicm reinstated if tlu^y would 
withdraw the suits, and they accepted tlio olive branch on those 



222 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTUKIES. 

terms. About tlie same time the son of Lewis Morris, bearing 
the same name, was elected speaker of the Assembly. Clarke 
also was diligent to repair the error his predecessor had made 
in offending the Mohawks, and to cement again the valuable 
relations of friendship by which alone the encroaching French 
could be held in check. 

In order to encourage settlement in the Mohawk River region, 
he recommended to the Assembly ihe building of a fort on the 
portage between the head of the Mohawk and the streams west- 
ward, as a support of the advance post at Oswego; and this 
may be regarded as the origin of Fort Stanwix, and the later 
Rome. During his term, too, an attempt was made to carry a 
large body of Scotch Highlanders to the borders of Lake George 
as permanent settlers of that region. But there arose misunder- 
standings between their leader and Clarke, and the scheme 
failed. 

In 171:1 occurred the famous '' Negro Plot '" in New York City 
— a panic and a riot of lying and slaughter much rather than a 
i)l()t, which Lossing calls "■ a counterpart in wickedness and ab- 
surdity to the Salem witchcraft delusion in the preceding cen- 
tury." Several fires in rapid succession were charged to negroes, 
and a loose woman under sentence of hangiug saved her life by 
inventing the details of a plot, which were believed without 
evidence. Two years later Clarke returned to England, having 
saved £100,000 out of his government, and died in Chester, Eng- 
land, at a good old age, in 1760. 




DE I.ANCEY ARMS. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ASSEMBLY KEEPS UP THE CONTEST. 

ITII the exception, perhaps, of William Burnet alone, 
almost all the governors who had been sent over to 
rule New York were military men, colonels mainly, 
with one general. The honor was now turned over to 
the navy, and in this chapter and the next we shall have to speak 
of captain, commodore, or admiral. Such was Sir George Clinton, 
who arrived at the capital of his province on September 20, 1743, 
and was destined to govern it for an exact decade, in this exceed- 
ing even the administration of General Hunter, and thus realiz- 
ing a term longer than that of any other governor under British 
dominion. 

Sir George Clinton was closely allied to the peerage of Eng- 
land. He was the second son of the sixth Earl of Lincoln, and 
the uncle of the earl then bearing the titl<\ His education had 
been entirely that of a sailor, to the neglect of general letters, 
but he had risen to the rank of commodore. In 1732 he had been 
made governor of Newfoundland, in which position he served 
until 1737, when he returned to sea duty with the fleet in the 
Mediterranean. By marriage he was relate<l to the Duke of 
Newcastle, the all-powerful premier of England, and some 
months after his arrival at New York he was promoted, at that 
nobleman's instance, to the rank of rear-admiral. 

His training and temperament fitted him better for the com- 
mand of a ship or a fleet than for the administration of such a 
province as New York. He was imperious and irritable, and he 



224 



THE EMPIUE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 



found, itlenty of occasion for getting into trouble on botli ac- 
counts. An authoritative tone so elTective and proper on board 
ship was of all things the least likely to suit an assembly which 
had long been taking those " preyious and open steps " toward 
independence. We are not surprised to read, therefore, in the 
" history-books " that Clinton's term of ten years Ayas one long- 
quarrel wiih the Assembly and with some indiyiduals. 

rnfortunately, too, the imju'essiou had gone abroad that he 
Ayas eager to make money out of his pDsition. Lieutenant-Cloy- 
ernor Clarke had been sending home dreadful reports of the 

shabbiuess of the post, and how 
little there was to be made out of 
it. ]^ut when he returned with the 
snug little fortune of £100,000, all 
made in New York, the possibili- 
• ties of the province and its chief 
administration Avere seen in a new 
aspect, and Admiral Clinton had 
lively expectations of coming out 
of it as well as his predecessor. He 
Avas a close rival, but fell short bA' 
£20,000. Still £80,000 Avere not to 
be despised, especially as money 
counted then. The ncAV governor 
brought with him his Avife and sev- 
eral children, all A'oung, one of Avhom became the Sir Henrj' 
Clinton of Ivevolutionarv times. 

Prominent throughout this administration, and one or two to 
folloAV. a])pears the personality of Chief Justice Jamc^s I)e Lan- 
cej. From the position he took, as related in the preceding- 
chapter, it may readily be imagined that he Avas a man likely to 
solicit and obtain favor "at court." Clinton was quite aliy(^ to 
the fact that, as a man without education and Avithout experience 
in civil affairs, the administration of the government might be a 
task beyond his powers. He Avas glad to find some one ui)on 




KIP VAN DAM. 



TIIK EMl'lUE STATE IN TilllEE CENTITRIES. 225 

whom the actual burden of that busiuess could bo thrown, whose 
tastes and ambitions would render the burden agreeable, while 
he himself would be able to enjoy repose and leisure to attend 
to such exi^loitation of the office as would replenish his private 
exchequer. 

James De Lancey was just the man to be made use of in this 
capacity, a sort of exalted factotum, and he turned to him with 
enthusiasm. The situation was accepted with equal enthusiasm 
on the part of the able colonist, and everything went on charm- 
ingly between the two men for some time. About a year after 
the governor's arrival he gave a token of his friendship and con- 
fidence by changing De Lancey's tenure of the office of chief 
justice from one on "■ pleasure " to one on " good behavior." In 
the former case the incumbent could be removed at the mere 
desire of the governor, with the consent of his council. But 
" good behavior " meant that only on charges and by impeach- 
ment could he be deprived of the office. The change was made 
at the request of De Lancey; it made him independent of the gov- 
ernor's favor, and it was claimed by Clinton that no sooner had 
it been effected than he turned against him. 

The break between the two men, which produced so much 
trouble for the governor, and kept the province also in a turmoil, 
did not occur, at least openly, till nearly two years later. In 
June, 1746, there was a quarrel, an exchange of hot, angry words, 
" over a bottle." Whether it was at a public banquet, or during 
a friendly private bout between the hitherto confidants, the 
common verdict is that they were both heated by wine, and 
words were spoken by Clinton which made De Lancey swear ven- 
geance. He certainly kept his oath, and he had a convenient 
coign of vantage in the Assembly. 

But in order to annoy the governor he had need of throwing 
in his influence and power on the side of the po^Dular party. It 
required a somersault in political affiliation, but principles 
M'ere not deeply rooted in political spheres in the days of the 
Georges, and De Lancey posed as brilliantly and effectively as 



226 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

the advocate of popular rights under Clinton, as he had trampled 
upon the most sacred safeguards of popular rights and liberties 
under Cosby. The letters of Clinton now became one continual 
arraignment and complaint of the man whom he had so much 
admired and advanced before. In spite of this the authorities 
at home sent over a commission as lieutenant-governor for De 
Lancey. This was adding gall to bitterness for Clinton: he 
withheld the commission from him for years, hoping to get the 
Lords of Trade to change their minds and bestow it upon a new 
favorite whom now he praised to the skies. 

This was none other than Dr. Cadwallader Colden, who de- 
serves more than a passing notice at our hands. In our enumera- 
tion of prominent men in the preceding chapter, he certainly had 
deserved as careful attention as any one there mentioned, but it 
so happened that he was not brought into sharp personal contact 
with any of the actors in the drama that made up the Zenger 
trial. Yet he was a member of the government even then, having 
a seat in the council; and we have already noticed that he entered 
the council at the recommendation of Governor Burnet in 1722, 
at the same time with James Alexander. These two men were 
relied on by Burnet to prepare a reply to the representations of 
the interested m.erchants and traders who sought the repeal of 
the act prohibiting the French trade so ruinous to English in- 
terests, and they produced a most able and admirable argument, 
which caused the authorities at home to pause and temporize, 
and staved off the suicidal repeal for seven years. 

Cadwallader Colden has been called one of the founders of 
American literature and science. His " History of the Five In- 
dian Nations," published by William Bradford in 1727, is still 
one of the recognized authorities on the history and manners 
of that interesting League. When the Palatines at Newburgh, 
preferring Pennsylvania and other parts, disposed bit by bit of 
their patent of twenty-five hundred acres, Colden secured quite 
a portion, which derived from him the name of Coldenham, and 
Avhich he occupied as a farm or summer home. 



THE EMnilE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 227 

Here he indulged his scientific tastes, in the way of agriculture 
and botany. He wrote a paper on the plants of Coldenham, which 
attracted the attention of the world-famous Linnaeus, the Swede, 
professor at one of the universities of Holland. On the strength 
of his description, Linnaeus named one genus that was new to 
him, C olden la. He wrote on medicine, gravitation, mathematics, 
and was a member of Franklin's Philosophical Society; in fact, 
it is said that he was the first to suggest the formation of it. He 
had ten children, many of whom inherited his tastes, and a late 
descendant, who was mayor of New York in 1828, Cadwallader 
D. Golden, was connected in a scientific or engineering capacity 
with the Erie Canal. In this connection we can not refrain from 
citing a letter, culled from that delightful lady historian referred 
to before, written by the husband of one of James Alexander's 
daughters : 

" Our voyage to Albany was purely a party of Pleasure. At 
one of our landings we made an excursion to Coldenham, the 
abode of the venerable philosopher. Golden. He is as gay and 
facetious in his conversation as he is serious and solid in his 
writings. From the middle of the Woods this Family corre- 
sponds with all the learned societies in Europe. Himself on the 
principles of Matter and Motion, his son on electricity and ex- 
periments. He has made several useful discoveries and is a 
tolerable proficient in music. His daughter Jenny is a Florist 
and a Botanist. She has discovered a great number of plants 
never before described, and has given them Properties and Vir- 
tues, many of which are found useful in Medicine, and she draws 
and colors them with great beauty. N. B. — She makes the best 
cheese I ever ate in America." 

That " N. B." is as delicious as the cheese it tells of, and the 
whole picture of the trij) and the stay at Goldenham up the river 
is worth more for giving us a view of human life in our State in 
colonial days than a hundred pages of battles and campaigns, 
or of the doings of royal personages and their governors on this 
side of the water, which is the usual diet served us in the history- 
books. 



228 



THE EMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



Still to such subjects we must return. Dr. Colden was born in 
1G88, the son of a Scotch clergyman, graduated from the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh in 1705, studied medicine in London and 
came to America in 1710. Five years later he went back to Eng- 
land and Scotland, perhaps for a romantic reason, for he brought 
back with him a bride, a clergyman's daughter, and settled in 
the practice of his profession at Philadelphia in 1716. He was 
induced bj the keen-minded Hunter to come to New York in 1718, 
and was appointed by him surveyor-general of the province. 

In 1722, as we saw, he 
entered the council under 
Burnet, who must have 
found a congenial com 
panion in him. Cosb}^ had 
not much appreciation for a 
mind of his class, and more 
than once referred to Col- 
den as a '' spy," and as 
" unfit to be trusted." De 
Lancey failing him, (lov- 
ernor Clinton turned to 
Colden. lie proved to be a 
man of affairs as well as of 
books and scientitic re- 
search, and Clinton rejoiced 
to find in him " an adviser 
even more conversant with colonial business than De Lancey." 
Dr. Colden remained actively engaged in the public business for 
the remainder of a very long life, and, as we shall see in later 
chapters, was invested with the chief rule as lieutenant-governor 
several times. He died at the age of eighty-eight years in 17711, 
almost within sound of the roar of the battles of the Kevolution, 
but out of sympathy with the cause of his fellow-colonists. 

There was a " power behind the throne " to sustain De Lancey 
in his opposition, frustrating Clinton in his endeavors to prevent 




PHILIP LIVINGSTON, SECOND LORD OF 
THE MANOR. MEMBER OF THE PROVIN- 
CIAL ASSEMBLY FROM ALBANY IN 1709. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 229 

his being made lieutenant-governor, and making the Lords of 
Trade deaf to most of his complaints. Dr. Herring, De Lancey's 
erstwhile tutor, was now archbishop, and his brother-in-law was 
Admiral Sir Peter Warren, the hero of the capture of Louisbourg 
in 1745. During Clinton's term the " War (^f the Austrian Suc- 
cession " was waging in Europe from 1744 to 1748, and was in- 
tended to prevent the House of Austria from ascending the 
throne of Spain, as that of the " Spanish Succession '' under 
Queen Anne had sought to keep the House of Bourbon from the 
same coveted position. 

This war went by the name of "' King George's War " in Amer- 
ica, and the most signal achievement was the taking of the 
fortress and city of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Isle, just north 
of Nova Scotia. It was peculiarly notable as undertaken and 
achieved almost unaided by New England money and raw pro- 
vincial troops. The historian Parkman calls it a " mad scheme." 
But it succeeded, with all its crudeness of detail in the execu- 
tion. The most efficient outside aid came from New York in the 
shape of an appropriation of £3,000 by the Assembly, provisions 
bought by private subscription, and artillery from the royal 
magazine. 

New York also contributed the commander of the British men- 
of-war that were the only contingent from the mother country. 
Commodore Peter Warren was a resident of New York City, and 
the holder of large tracts of land in the province, lying on the 
Mohawk River. He had married Susannah De Lancey, sister of 
the chief justice, had a house at No. 1 Broadway and a country 
seat at what was then the village of Greenwich, a few miles up 
the island. Shortly after Clinton's rule began he had been made 
a member of the council, and the events at Louisbourg raised 
him at once to immense influence in England. He was elevated 
to the rank of admiral and was knighted for his services. Hold- 
ing back from the expedition at first because it had no sanction 
from the king's government, he had no sooner obtained leave 
to do so than he hurried after it with three ships. 



230 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

With all New England's pluck and dash^ it is doubtful if the 
project would have succeeded without this material assistance 
on the sea. Warren maintained a nearly impassable blockade, 
and finally captured a French relief ship, vastly larger than any 
of his own, which furnished the besieging army with the stores 
: and ammunition which were beginning to fail them, and thereby 
secured the surrender of the place on June 17, 1745. In the 
course of the war, which lasted three years longer, until the 
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, New York alone expended 
£70,000, and suffered much upon the northern borders. In 1746 
the province offered a bounty of £6 per man to those who would 
enlist. While its population was only a little over sixty thousand 
souls, no less than sixteen hundred men were kept in the field 
ready for warlike operations. 

Naturally, in times of war, the Indian question became a 
pressing one. Governor Clinton expended considerable energy 
in coping with it, and his administration is noted by a great 
number of congresses of governors called together by him to 
consult upon the best means of conciliating some Indians and 
opposing others. The way was open to him, as to his predeces- 
sors, for holding the Indians of the Six Nations to their alle- 
giance, and he did not neglect it. The French were more active 
than ever in their efforts to seduce these tribes from their friend- 
ship and support in the direction of England, and it needed, 
therefore, sj)ecial care to keep these alive by liberal presents. It 
was just here that much mischief resulted to the province from 
Clinton's quarrel with De Lancey, for the latter scrupled not to 
seek his revenge by opposing the governor's measures for the 
raising of money needed for the purpose of securing defenses for 
the northern frontier and the conciliation of the Indian allies. 

A startling rebuke did this ill-advised and factious parsimony 
receive in 1745, when occurred the massacre of Saratoga. On 
the flats near the junction of Fish Creek, or Kill, with the Hudson 
River, on the west bank of the river (near the present Schuyler- 
ville), Philip Schuyler, a brother of the famous Peter Schuyler, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 231 

had founded a little village. There were about thirt}^ families 
residing here, with servants and slaves, mostly engaged in farm- 
ing, and tenants of Mr. Schuyler, who lived among them. For 
the protection of this hamlet, which rejoiced in the name of 
Saratoga, a fort was built of logs and stockades, or palisades. 

When the war broke out a garrison was sent to occupy this 
frontier post, the farthest north from Albany, and facing, there- 
fore, the whole of Canada, with the dire possibilities of assault 
thence. The force consisted of a sergeant, a corporal, and ten 
soldiers! But they found the fort in such poor condition that 
neither they nor their powder could keep dry in a rainstorm. De 
Lancey's noble frenzy keeping the Assembly from giving Gov- 
ernor Clinton the money to mend matters, the latter ordered the 
garrison to withdraw when winter approached, and the village of 
Saratoga was left unprotected in the wilderness by the beginning 
of November. 

Here was a chance for the French. A force of five hundred 
Canadians and Huron Indians, under Monsieur Marin, were 
stationed at Crown Point. Approaching in the usual stealthy 
manner, a party of soldiers and warriors suddenly fell upon the 
little settlement on the night of November 17 (28, new style, 
as in French records). The destruction and massacre were of 
the approved French and Indian style. Fort, houses, barns, 
mills, were given to the flames. Thirty persons were killed, one 
hundred carried off to the living death of imprisonment and tor- 
ture. Philip Schuyler's body was burned up with his own house; 
another Schuyler was made prisoner. As morning dawned the 
invaders sang a Te Dcuiii for the signal victory vouchsafed them 
over the helpless adherents of another faith. It was the end of 
Saratoga for some time. 

As the destruction of this frontier post left Albany exposed, 
opposition to grants of money was so far waived that a beg- 
garly £150 were voted by the Assembly to repair the fort, and the 
palisades and log blockhouse were to some degree reinstated. 
But they soon became useless again from neglect. In 1747 



232 



THE EMPIUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



(\)l()iiel Peter Schuyler was stationed there with a re^jjiment, 
which was better at least than the corporal's guard of former 
days; but no supplies being sent to the regiment it had to with- 
draw as well as the smaller force. By Clinton's orders an ex- 
amination of the post was then made, and being found inde- 
fensible, it was by the same directions burned. When a French 
and Indian war party came a little later to repeat their exploit 
of 1745 they found their work forestalled by their enemy's own 

hands, at which they were not 
a little surprised. 

Accepting this invitation to 
carry their ravages further 
south, the settlers were con- 
stantly harassed; farm after 
farm along the frontier was 
wiped out, until the burning 
buildings could be seen from 
Albany itself. The only check 
to these proceedings came 
from the Mohawks, who suc- 
Y^ ceeded in carrying their 
counter-irritant raids as far 
as Montreal, and then gave 
the Te Dchiu singing Indians 
something to keep them at 
home. " But," Parkman says, 
" the check was but momentary. Heathen Indians from the 
West joined the Canadian converts, and the frontiers of New 
York and New England, from the Mohawk to beyond the Ken- 
nebec, were stung through all their length by innumerable noc- 
turnal surprises and petty attacks.'" But French aggressions 
embraced also the western portions of New York province. In- 
cessantly repeated, in spite of constant failure, the attempts to 
seduce the Tro(iuois League went on. 

At times there was danger of yielding, particularly when the 




RICHARD LOVELACE. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 233 

Assembly's narrow-Diinded partisanship, or the greed of the laud- 
owners, made it impossible to keep a decent countenance before 
the Indians on the part of those who sought to hold them for 
England. Lonely Oswego looked out upon the blue waters of 
Ontario, ready to stop any invader who wished to come up the 
convenient route of the Oswego Eiver. But Fort Frontenac 
grimly guarded the outlet of the lake at one end, and Fort 
Niagara was at the other extremity, flying the French flag both. 
And soon that indefatigable nation had a fortress at Ogdensburg 
also, again within New York territory, as was Crown Point. 
They gave it the name of Fort Presentation. 

In 1748 Governor Clinton, seconded b}' Governor Shirley, of 
Massachusetts, sent out invitations to the governors of all the 
American colonies to meet at Albany. It was the spot where 
immediate conferences could he held with the general council 
of the Six Nations, the only hope against French aggressions 
and Indian marauders. When these august colonial magnates 
met, the news came that peace had been effected at Aix-la- 
Chapelle. The cessation of war in Europe was no guaranty 
for the same thing in America, and again in 1751 Clinton called a 
congress of representatives from the colonies at Albany. Only 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina responded; it 
w^as hard to get concerted action among the colonies, and there 
was no avowed war between the nations at home. 

As if to relieve his mind from the annoyances furnished in such 
plenty by the Assembly, Clinton seemed to have had a great 
fondness for these congresses, for another one was called to meet 
in New York City in June, 1753. The representatives from the 
Six Nations also came down from their northern castles, under 
the lead of " King " Hendrick, who had once had the taste of 
the greater splendors of London, unless it was his son, who now 
bore the name. He plainly spoke of one danger of alienating 
the invaluable alliance of the Iroquois : "You have taken the 
land of the ^Mohicans," he said, addressing the New England 
delegates, " and driven them away, and it will be the same with 



234 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

the Mohawks.-' It was a warning against the too free distribu- 
tion of land grants in regions occupied and owned by friendly 
Indians of the League, 

The Saratoga massacre, while it resulted in no vigorous re- 
habilitation of that frontier post, induced the Assembly to make 
provision for the westward advance of civilized settlements. Six 
blockhouses were ordered built at various points along the Mo- 
hawk River, all the way to w^hat was then called Fort William, 
later Fort Stanwix, and is now the site of Rome. If such works 
had been well built and securely held, the Indians would have 
conceived much more respect for the prowess, as well as the 
sincerity, of the English, who did not shine by contrast in such 
a policy with their French rivals. 

In view of the fact that the strenuous efforts of the French to 
seduce the Iroquois were directed especially in the line of mis- 
sionary work, and many converted to Christianity, left the League 
to identify themselves with the French, it is surprising that not 
more was done on the part of the Protestant colonists to gain 
over their savage allies to the Christian faith. Yet some at- 
tempts in that direction were made. We have mentioned the 
labors of one or two Albany pastors, of the Dutch church there, 
in the preceding centurj^ Much more was done in the century 
now under discussion. Mr. Ellis H. Roberts gives a succinct 
account of the men who won deserved distinction as mission- 
aries during that period. After the visit of the Rev. Mr. Moore 
to the Indians in 1704, he says that the work " was taken up 
again among the Mohawks in 1712 by Rev, Mr, Andrews, who 
was assisted by Rev, Thomas Barclay, the English minister at 
Albany. Of the services to the red men of Rev. Peter van 
Driessen, minister of the Dutch church at Albany, the record is 
brief. Rev, Henry Barclay, a graduate of Yale College, an 
Episcopalian clergyman, labored efficiently among the Mohawks 
from 1736 to 1746, and at his departure a congregation of five 
hundred Indians, including eighty communicants, assembled to 
bid him farewell. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 235 

"Two years later, from the schools at Stockbridge, Mass., under 
the direction of the noted Jonathan Edwards, and at Lebanon, 
Conn., under Dr. Wheelock, began that stream of educated mis- 
sionaries who adorn the annals of the province. In 1752 Eev. 
Gideon Hawley made his first visit to the Iroquois, and has left 
interesting journals of his services as evangelist among them 
for many years. Other zealous men engaged for brief periods 
in the difficult work, until in 1764 Samuel Kirkland went forth 
to preach to the Senecas, and became identified especially with 
the Oneidas, leaving his name in the churches, afi'ecting the cur- 
rent of events, and commemorated by Hamilton College, which 
has risen on the foundations of an academy established by him 
for Indians and their instructors. The last of the missionaries 
to the Mohawks was Rev. John Stuart, who served among them 
from 1770 to 1775 with fidelity and usefulness." 

A different work among the Indians, but one tending quite as 
much to their civilization and elevation, was accomplished by 
one whose name and personality now claim our attention, as one 
of those to whom the State of New York owes much of its de- 
velopment, and whom Dr. Griffis does not hesitate to class among 
the makers of the nation. We refer to Sir William Johnson, a 
Commissioner for Indian Affairs, and finally the Indian Superin- 
tendent under Governor Clinton. He was the nephew of Admiral 
Warren, the brother of his mother, and was born near Dublin. 
Ireland, in 1715. Disappointed in love at the age of twenty-two, 
this uncle offered him a career in America as a solace for his 
wounded heart. 

Captain Warren, as he then was, had bought and acquired by 
his marriage with Miss De Lancey, large estates in the Mohawk 
Valley, counting as many as fifteen thousand acres. The push 
of the Palatines westward had opened the eyes of speculators 
to the character and possibilities of the country there, on which 
account many purchasers were found for plantations there. But 
Warren wished to develop the land rather than hold for advanced 
sales. He offered to appoint young Johnson agent for the man- 



236 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



agement of this property, and his adventurous spirit jumped at 
this chance for enterprise. 

Thus about the year 1737, when Clarke ruled in the land, Will- 
iam Johnson arrivcMl at New York. There were influential rela- 
tives to make a stay at the colonial capital pleasant, but doubt- 
less Johnson's energetic nature was not inclined to delay for 
long his journey northward. We can follow^ the slow progress 
per sloop up the Hudson, and the march across land from Albany 
to Schenectady. Supplies for subsistence and labor on the un- 
tried soil may have been made at either place. At Schenectady 

these would be embarked in scows or 
canoes, and toilsomely towed up the 
current of the Mohawk. The cap- 
tain's (later admiral's) land was 
called Warrensburg, or Warren's 
Bush, and lay at a distance of about 
twenty-four miles from Schenectady, 
on the north side of the Mohawk east 
of a point opposite where the Scho- 
harie Creek brought its driftwood 
into the river. Here were the first 
rude cabins built for man and beast, 
and soon the woods rang with the 
leveling axe to open the soil to the 
light and air of heaven and make it fruitful. 

Johnson was not devoid of neighbors and companions, for 
there were already several small hamlets clustering on either 
bank of the river, and here and there an adventurer, as bold as 
himself, was turning the wilderness, singlehan<led upon a lonely 
farm, into a garden. We have related the settling of the Pala- 
tines in this region as far as Herkimer, or German Flats, in 
1724. About a year after Johnson came to the Mohawk he mar- 
rienl the daughter of one of this i)eople. He saw that this wild 
country could as yet yield other wealth than that of the soil, and 
that the trade in peltries was by no means a. thing of the past. 




GOV. WILLIAM BURNET. 



THE EMTIKK STATE IX TUUEE CENTURIES. 237 

111 May, 1739, JohnsoD made arrangements to locate a trading- 
post on the Susquehanna, two hundred miles southward, and 
employed runners, or bosch-loopcrs, to gather the furs from the 
Indian or white trappers. 

In these transactions he insisted upon the most scrupulous 
honesty, fair-dealing, and truthfulness with the Indians, so that 
they soon learned to see that his lips never uttered a word upon 
which they could not rely; that they were never deceived as to 
what he told them regarding their interest or their injury, and 
when he had made a promise he fulfilled it even to his own hurt. 
They saw, too, that he exacted the same treatment from them; 
and they gave it; no Indian was ever found lacking in response 
to fairness of dealing and truth of speech. But aside from these 
business principles they liked him because he showed himself 
quite capable of measuring and matching his physical prowess 
and endurance with their own. He was tall, and strong, and 
lithe, and in athletic games or races could hold his own with the 
best. He was ready at acquiring languages, and soon was mas- 
ter of the dialects prevailing in central and western New York. 

The Mohawks soon formally adopted him into their tribe as a 
warrior, and then he often appeared in their dress, paint and all, 
whooping, and yelling, and stamping feet in the dance as lustily 
as any of them. " A white man thus playing the Indian," says 
Parkiiian, " usually gains nothing in the esteem of those he 
imitates, but as before in the case of the redoubtable Count 
Prontenac, Johnson's adoption of their ways increased their 
liking for him and did not diminish their respect." 

When prosperity was assured and fortune accumulated, John- 
son was enabled to pass with his young wife from log cabin and 
country store to the rustic magnificence of Johnson Hall, on 
Mount Johnson. This was on the site of the present populous 
town of Johnstown, numbering some eight thousand souls now, 
and situated north of Fonda, in Fulton County. The first " Hall " 
was of m(»re primitive construction than the later edifice of stone, 
v.diich was built about 17C3, and is still standing. From this 



238 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

(•ommanding location the prospect embraces " the range of May- 
fico Hills, or Mountains, in an easterly direction, while to the 
south are seen Anthony's Nose on the Mohawk, and farther on 
the hills between Canajoharie and Cherry Valley, and at a dis- 
tance of between thirty or forty miles the blue, cloudlike moun- 
tains leading to the Catskills and the Delaware." 

It stood to reason that here, by special providential prepara- 
tion, was the man to take up the work of Van Corlaer and Peter 
Schuyler. It is indeed a sad commentar}' on the dealings that 
were most usual on the part of the white men with the Indians, 
that the few men who came to the foreground in the history of 
New York who implicitly trusted them, who never hesitated to 
go among them, even in times of war, because the natives on 
their side gave to these men confidence and even affection — a 
DeVries, a Corlaer, a Schuyler, a Johnson — were simply men 
who told them the truth and kept faith with them. Governor 
Clinton was not slow to discover that William Johnson must save 
the Indian situation. 

Never before had the French been so industrious in seeking 
to wean away the tribes of the Six Nations, and never before had 
they come so near doing it. The Board of Indian Commissioners 
at Albany, with Philip Livingston at Iheir head, were serving 
their own interests much more than those of the State or the 
Indians, the repeal of the laws against French trade having 
brought back again the old abuses. Therefore, in 1746, Clinton 
appointed Johnson Indian superintendent. It at once brought 
down upon the new official the antagonism of the Albany trad- 
ers and that of the opposition in the Assembly, so that supplies 
and money for presents were refused constantly. Yet difficult 
as his task was made, Johnson did save the situation. " The 
Five [Six] Nations," says Parkman, " promised to take up the 
hatchet against the French, and their orator said, in a conference 
at Albany, ' should any French priests now dare to come among 
us, we know no use for them but to roast them." " 

A little later, when the position had been his for some years, 



THE EMPIUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 239 

and distinction had come to him for other services, we find this 
description of him by one who had seen and met him, the author 
of " The Memoirs of an American Lady." This lady writes (and in 
the opening sentence reveals a pleasant circumstance in view of 
the unworthy enmity Johnson met with from others at Albany) : 
" By the advice of the Schuylers there was now on the Mohawk 
River a superintendent of Indian affairs; the importance of which 
charge began to be fully understood. He was regularly ap- 
pointed and paid by the government. This was the justly cele- 
brated Sir William Johnson, who hield an ofiQce difficult both to 
define and execute. He might indeed be called the tribune of the 
Five [Six] Nations; their claims he asserted, their rights he 
protected; and over their minds he possessed a greater sway 
than any other individual had ever attained. . . . He was 
an uncommonly tall, well-made man, with a fine countenance. 
He appeared to be taciturn, never wasting words on matters of 
no importance, but highly eloquent when the occasion called 
forth his powers." 

During the course of our narrative thus far, we have fre- 
quently come upon the most prominent fact of the present ad- 
ministration — the continuous collision between the governor and 
the Assembly. If the Assembly that met Lord Lovelace in 1709 
began the contest that ended only with independence, that body 
in its encounters with Clinton kept up the contest with amazing 
vigor, seemingly anxious to have it ripen as fast as possible to- 
ward the fruit that Bancroft mentions, and which was foreseen 
by Attorney-General Bradley in 1729. It would be more grati- 
fying to the later observer of patriotic instincts if it could have 
been conducted all along in a manner worthy of the high end, 
which was by no means always or with every one also the aim 
of the contest. 

In some of the instances of its collision with the governor 
already noted, it was even undignified and untrue to the best 
interests of the province and of the country. There were times 
of high need when it withheld money, to the peril and detriment 



240 



THE EMTIUE t^.TATE IN TIIKEE CENTURIES. 



of the people; and there were measures of undoubted utility 
and far-reaching benefit which it crippled or squelched in mere 
pique against Clinton. Thus it might well appear to an observer 
from the outside " that the condition of New York, as respects 
military efficiency, was deplorable. She was divided against 
herself, and, as usual in such cases, party passion was stronger 
than the demands of war. The province was in the midst of one 
of those disputes with the representatives of the crown, which, 

in one degree or 
another, crippled 
or paralyzed the 
military activity of 
nearly all the Brit- 
ish colonies." 

Viewed in this 
light, there was 
nothing commend- 
able in the prog- 
ress of the contest 
that meant so 
much in the sequel. 
lUit there were 
other lights under 
which to look at it, 
and these render 
the review of the 
quarrel between 
Clinton and the Assembly not altogether disheartening. He 
came to America to emulate the performance of the thrifty 
Clarke, who managed to pacify the refractor}^ representatives. 
That Clinton so nearly succeeded in pocketing the same huge 
sum, with all the opposition that constantly harassed his every 
move, showed that he could never have lost out of sight the 
sordid purpose that sent him across the Atlantic. 

The commission read in public contained the instruction which 




WILLIAM SMITH. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 241 

necessarily had the effect of a signal gun to action upon the 
Assembly : " And our further will and pleasure is that all pub- 
lick money raised or which shall be raised by any act to be here- 
after made within our said province and the other territories 
depending thereon, be issued out by warrant from you, by and 
with the advice and consent of our counsel [council], and dis- 
posed of by you for the support of the government, and not other- 
wise." A frame of mind was prepared by these two circum- 
stances which argued the worst possible for any smoothness of 
intercourse or harmony in operation between the governor and 
the Assembly. 

A week after his arrival, or on September 27, 1743, Clinton 
diss(dved the Assembly then in existence. It was done by the 
advice of De Lancey, and need have had no sinister design in it, 
for it was the ordinary thing for new governors to do; but after- 
ward Clinton discovered in the advice a desire to get rid of the 
speaker, the son of his old enemy, Morris. The day of the disso- 
lution writs were issued for the election of a new body, and as 
only seven men failed of a re-election, there could have been no 
great alteration in the relative strength or position of parties. 
It met on November 8, 1743, and the three principal subjects 
that Clinton brought to its attention of a financial nature, were 
the necessity of granting funds for the defense of the province 
in the event of the war that was soon to be openly declared; the 
obligation to make the stipulated presents to the people of the 
Six Nations; and the rt^quirements of the business of the prov- 
ince which called for the payment of the salaries of the various 
officers from the governor down. 

Acting upon these ])ressing and obvious requirements, there 
was a sufficiently cordial and prompt response during tlu^ first 
session, which ended on December 17. TIk^ governor was voted 
a salary of £1,500, with an addition of £0)50 as fees. There was 
also what was called an " allowance " to him of the g(Mierous 
sum of £1,000, for a rather mysterious reason, expressed as fol- 
lows : " As a reward for his solicitation in behalf of the province, 



242 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

and for the expense and loss of time occasioned thereby." It is 
evident that no friction had as yet been developed, no alert 
enemy as yet arisen to question such a reward, which looked 
more like an award. There was also voted the sum of £800 to be 
expended on the Indian problem. 

These acts received the approval of the governor, and he urged 
that they be ratified by the Lords of Trade. Yet that board of ad- 
ministrators for the colonies put on record what they thought 
of the drift of these bills so cleverly enacted by the New York 
Assembly : " By these acts," they say, " the support of govern- 
ment was limited to one 3'ear, and the particular salaries affixed 
to each officer by name and not to the office, whereby not only the 
disposal of public money is placed in the hands of the Assembly, 
but also the nomination of officers and the ascertaining their 
salaries." 

Exactly in the face, all this, therefore, of the royal instruc- 
tions sent with every governor from Lord Lovelace down. Ex- 
actly the contention which had met Governor Lovelace, only 
carried a little further. The grants for one year only were here 
now as then, and for specific objects; but now logically developed 
to the mention of the names of the officials to be salaried, so that 
the appointing power was encroached upon. The contest, of 
which Bancroft speaks, had indeed thickened, and royal instruc- 
tions had better have rained down in torrents in order to clear the 
air for royal prerogative. For the personal attitude of Governor 
Clinton was not going to improve the situation, nor keep the 
Assembly from exercising the appointing power. When faction 
had come to full bloom under De Lancey, they did actually in 
the bill for payment of salaries remove one officer's name and 
put in another, " without consulting me," as Clinton plaintively 
observes. 

An incident perhaps not very edifying grew out of these con- 
flicting authorities, but which shows the drift of the times. 
James Parker had succeeded William Bradford (who was now 
approaching the age of ninety) in the active management of the 



THE E^ilPlKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 243 

government printing office, and tlie publication of the Gazette. 
He was engaged upon tlie printing of an account of Clinton's 
visit and conference with the Indians, when there came an order 
from the Assembly to print an address of their own, and they 
compelled Parker to lay aside the governor's matter. It was 
natural, but not wise, that Clinton should have retaliated by 
forbidding Parker to print a remonstrance of some kind which 
the governor had refused to receive from the Assembly. For at 
once there was a hue and cry raised that government had vio- 
lated the rights of the people and was muzzling the press. 

The amenities exchanged were not of the pleasantest char- 
acter, each side frankly expressing themselves with regard to the 
other, without mincing matters. The Assembly read Clinton a 
lecture as to their general opinion of governors, with full per- 
mission to make a particular application. " Governors," they 
said, " are generally entire strangers to the people they are sent 
to govern ; they seldom regard the welfare of the people otherwise 
than as they can make it subservient to their own particular in- 
terest; and as they know the time of their continuance in their 
governments to be uncertain, all methods are used, and all 
engines set to work, to raise estates to themselves. Should the 
public moneys be left to their disposition, what can be expected 
but the grossest misapplication, under various pretenses, which 
will never be wanting? " 

Now this was coming rather close home to a man who had 
dangling before liis eyes Clarke's prize of £100,000, and who se- 
cured one of £80,000 for himself. It could not have been pleasant 
doctrine: and, as under a former administration, the plea had 
been made that the truth of a libel made the libel only the worse, 
so the truth of this doctrine about governors made its exposition 
all the more unpalatable. So Governor Clinton retaliated in 
kind. He bluntly told tliem that they were mere creatures, made 
and unmade by the king's breath; that the Assembly " had no 
authority to sit but by the king's command and instructions." 
And he uttered the threat : " Every branch of this Legislature 



244 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



may be criminal in the eye of the law; and there is a power able 
to punish 3^011, and that will punish you, if you provoke that 
power to do it by your misbehavior; otherwise you must think 
yourselves independent of the crown of Great Britain." 

These spirited remarks were interchanged during the session 
of tlie Assembly which met in October, 1748. Then, again, with 
wearisome and useless iteration, Clinton, in obedience to instruc- 
tions, had asked for a grant of revenue for at least five years. 
It was refused, as usual, and the Assembly stated the reason : 
" From recent experience we are fully convinced that the 
method of an annual support is most wholesome and salutary, 
and are confirmed in the opinion that the faithful representatives 
of the people will never depart from it." No supply bill passed 
this Assembly, and for two years Clinton was fain to get along 

the best way he could 
without money. 

There may have been 
something of spite in this 
obstinacy; there may 
have been a phase of dis- 
loyalty to the best inter- 
ests of the province about 
it. But still there was a principle involved which bore on future 
times, and safeguarded the liberties of the people for generations 
that were to come later. In August, 1750, Clinton was at his 
wits' end, and the next mouth he issued the summons for the 
meeting of the Assembly. He completely surrendered his side 
of the contention, and was willing to receive the grants of rev- 
enue on the Assembly's own terms. On its part it came forward 
with commendable readiness to remedy the past. The supplies 
for the two previous years were made up, and all that was needed 
for the coming year appropriated. 

Frequently during the ten years of his incumbency Clinton 
had been on the point of resigning his post. He had more than 
•once asked for permission to leave New York for a time on a 




EABLY SLAVE MAKKET, NEW YORK. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 245 

visit to England. The authorities at home had repeatedly dis- 
couraged or refused these requests, and Clinton had at times 
been deterred b^^ the consideration that in such an event he must 
leave the government in the hands of De Lancey as lieutenant- 
governor, whose commission as such lie had not yet handed over 
to him. 

But in 1753 he was at last relieved from his prolonged an- 
noyances. He did not leave New York till after he had delivered 
the government into the hands of his successor. In November, 
1753, he took ship for England with all his family. The authori- 
ties there provided well for his later days. Although carrying- 
home with him his oft-mentioned £80,000, he was given the sine- 
cure of governor of Greenwich Hospital for life. Promotion also 
still awaited him in his chosen profession : in 1755 he was made 
vice-admiral of the lied, and in 1757 he was raised to the high 
rank of Admiral of the Fleet. He died in 1701. 

The contest which the New York Assembly kept up so stren- 
uously against royal prerogative, as represented by the governor 
of the province, was destined to have in it one tragic episode, to 
which the course of our narrative has now brought us. For the 
chief actor in this tragedy, the one who himself made a tragedy 
of it, was Clinton's successor. Governor Sir Danvers Osborn. 
This gentleman was born at the family seat of Chicksands Priory, 
Bedfordshire, on November 17, 1715, and was thus only thirty- 
eight years old when he was appointed Governor of New York. 
There was nothing of the adventurer or the fortune-hunter about 
him, the reason for his appointment being a pathetic one. Of an 
ancient and honorable lineage, his ancestors since EdAvard VI. 
had held positions of trust near the sovereign's person by inherit- 
ance, and some of them had been knighted at various times. In 
1GC2 the bearer of the name and the office was made a baronet, 
and Sir Danvers was the third in succession. 

In September, 1740, when he was twenty-five years of age, he 
was married to the daughter of the Earl of Halifax. It was a 
very happy union, but immediately after the birth of a second 



246 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

son in 1743, Lady Osborn died. The husband was inconsolable, 
and his reason oave many signs of beiug unseated. He sought 
distraction in public life, sat in Parliament for Bedford County; 
raised a troop of horse in 1745 in support of King George against 
the Pretender; and when still the grief hung heavy upon him in 
1750 he paid a visit of six months to Lord Cornwallis, Governor 
of Nova Scotia. His brother-in-law, the Earl of Halifax, presi- 
dent of the board of trade, induced him to accept the post of gov- 
ernor of New York, in the hope of further curing his malady. 
But the remedy proved worse than the disease. 

On Saturday, October G, 1753, the vessel conveying Sir Danvers 
arrived at New York. On Sunday, October 7, he landed, and was 
received by the council. Governor Clinton being at his coun- 
try seat at Flushing, L. I. Although it was the Lord's Day, 
a banquet was given in honor of the new incumbent. On Mon- 
day, the 8th, Clinton came into town, and a conference took 
place between the two men at the governor's mansion in the fort; 
a banquet being again given in the evening, at which both were 
present. The official mansion was undergoing repairs, and there- 
fore Sir Danvers, who w^as quite alone, having left his boys in 
the care of his mother, was entertained at the house of lawyer 
Joseph INlurray, who had married one of Cosby's daughters, and 
was thereby related to the late Lady Osborn. Murray's house 
was on Broadway, on the west side, and the jrarden in the rear 
sloped down to the river's bank. On Tuesday, October 9, the 
retiring governor made a formal call on his successor at this 
house, and the freedom of the city in a gold box was also pre- 
sented. 

On Wednesday, October 10, 1753, took place the inauguration 
of the new governor in great state. A parade of city dignitaries 
and the military marched from the fort to the City Hall, and 
there the ceremonies of induction were conducted, in the presence 
of a great multitude. As the two governors passed between the 
ranks of the crowd on either side of Broadway and Wall Street, 
marks of hatred and words of vituperation against Clinton 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 247 

mingled with the liuzzas for the new comer. These ill-timed ex- 
pressions of wrath did not trouble Clinton half so much as they 
did the sensitive Osborn. He remarked that he fully expected 
that he himself would be made the target for such abuse ere he 
had long been in office. At night bonfires and colored lights 
bade the darkness flee, and another banquet followed those al- 
ready enjoyed. 

On Thursday, the 11th, the governor's foreboding seemed to 
obtain decided justification. He met with his council and con- 
fided to them that he did not like a j)assage in the address of the 
corporation which had expressed the hope that his excellency 
would be " as averse from countenancing as we from brooking 
any infringements of our estimable liberties, civil and religious." 
He said that he wished to ask the corporation to remove it from 
their address. He was earnestly dissuaded from making such a 
request. Remembering that his instructions directed him to do 
the very thing deprecated thus in advance, he asked of De Lancey 
how the enforcement of the instructions w^ould be met. De 
Lancey replied that the Provincial Assembly would not jdeld an 
iota of the practice of voting a revenue for one year only, and 
for specified objects and persons. Upon this plain rejoinder, 
Sir Danvers bowed his head disconsolately and remarked : 
" What, then, am I sent here for? I shall soon leave you the gov- 
ernment. I can not bear this burden." 

That evening Osborn dined quietly at his host's. Complaining 
of illness, he retired early, and, although a physician was sum- 
moned, the governor disregarded his prescription. Early on the 
next morning, Friday, October 12, the body of the unhappy man 
was found suspended hj a neckerchief from one of the palings 
in the fence of Mr. Murray's garden. The prospect of the contest 
before him had overwhelmed his shattered mind and broken 
spirit, which had never recovered from the grief of ten years 
before. As Governor Clinton had finally handed De Lancey his 
commission as lieutenant-governor on the morning of Osborn's 
inauguration, he now succeeded to the active administration of 



248 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



the province, bearing the rule for nearly two years, until the ar- 
rival of the deceased governor's successor. 

This brief period was signalized by the Congress of Albany, 
which formulated the first plan of Union for the colonies. The 
Congress was called, as so many before it, to confer with the rep- 
resentatives of the Six Nations and strengthen them in their 
allegifince to England against France. It met in the Court 
House, or City Hall, at Albany, on Wednesday, June 19, 1754, 
and there were present twenty-three delegates, four from New 
York, four from New Hampshire, four from Massachusetts, three 

from Connecticut, two from 
Khode Island, two from Mary- 
land, and four from Pennsyl- 
vania, of whom Benjamin Frank- 
lin was one. Lieutenant-Governor 
De Laucey was chosen to preside. 
Conferences were held, as in- 
tended, with the Iroquois, of 
Avhich nothing needs here to be 
said, as there was no special de- 
parture from the features com- 
monly marking such meetings. 
There were flowery speeches, and 
solid presents, and solemn protes- 
tations and promises on both 
sides. The rust was rubbed off the chain of friendship, as the 
Indians were accustomed to term it, and for awhile they served 
again their useful purpose as a buffer, or bulwark, against the 
assaults of the French and Indians from Canada. 

We are more concerned with the session of Monday afternoon, 
June 24. Then, the Indian affairs having been disposed of, a 
motion was made " that the commissioners deliver their opinion 
whether a Union of all the colonies is not at present absolutely 
necessary for their security and defense." The motion to change 
the character of the Congress from one cm Indian affairs to one 




CAI>WALLADEK COLDEN. 



TFIE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 249 

on Colonial Union, was passed by a unanimous vote. Franklin, 
who had been agitating the subject of Union in his newspaper 
for some time, was made chairman of a committee to draft a 
plan. This committee was composed of one delegate from each 
of the colonies represented, William Smith being the mt^mber 
from New York. On July 4 — an auspicious date — the committee 
were ready with their plan and reported it to the Congress. It 
was discussed for some days, meeting with opposition on the 
part of some, among whom were Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey 
and Joseph Murray, of the New York deputies. But on July 10 
it was adopted by the Congress, and ordered to be laid before the 
colonial governments, who had sent delegates to the Congress, 
as well as to those not represented. 

The plan called for a chief executive officer, denominated 
President-General, who was to be appointed by the crown. The 
legislative department was to be called the Grand Council, which 
was to meet every three years, and to be composed of forty-eight 
delegates, chosen by the Assemblies of the several colonies, none 
of them to have less than two representatives, and for the re- 
mainder to be regulated by the population, so that Massachusetts 
and Virginia were each entitled to seven. It is a remarkable 
circumstance — proving that time is needed to prepare men for 
certain measures — that the plan met with the approval of neither 
the English government nor of any of the colonies themselves. 

The authorities in England objected to a concentration of 
power whereby the colonies would become too conscious of their 
strength and thus advance to independence. The colonies ap- 
prehended danger from the centralization of power in the hands 
of an official appointed by the crown. But subsequent events 
so remarkably in line with this proposed " Union " bid us ever 
turn with a peculiar interest to this early agitation of the sub^ 
ject. Neither the people nor the times were ripe for the measure, 
but they were ripening fast. The contest that was not to end 
except with independence was nearing its end; and before in- 
dependence Union had to be. 



250 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Before we take up the narrative of events that were to lead 
to this result with ever-increasing rapidity, we must devote the 
remainder of this chapter to a brief view of life and conditions 
in various parts of the province about the middle of this century, 
or at least about the period of its middle decades. In these we 
reach the close of the colonial times, those last days of undis- 
turbed repose in the sentiment that the colonies w^ere and of 
right ought to be subject to the dominion of Great Britain. The 
change to a sentiment quite the opposite of this meant in- 
surrection and revolution, and the march through the years 
when this change was wrought is one attended by the blare of 
trumpets and the roar of artillery, and all the other pomp and 
circumstance of war. That is, we will have to occupy ourselves 
almost altogether with military events in the two following 
chapters; therefore, it will be pleasant to refresh ourselves with 
some aspects of history of another kind, presenting us with the 
view^ how people lived, and ate, and dressed, and so forth. 

New York City, the capital, had attained a population of over 
fourteen thousand souls. Several churches of respectable pro- 
portions now occupied its streets, while many of her wealthy 
citizens had reared for themselves handsome residences. The 
fame of one of them, indeed, the " Walton House," which stood 
till 1881, spread beyond the Atlantic, and was introduced into 
speeches in Parliament to prove that there was wealth enough 
in the colonies to bear a little taxation for their defense. 

In " An American Lady," cited before, and of great value in a 
review like the present, we read in what relation the capital 
stood to the province: " At New York there was always a gov- 
ernor, a few troops, and a kind of a little court kept; there, too, 
was a mixed, and, in some degree, polished society. It was the 
custom of the inhabitants of the upper settlements, who had 
any pretensions to superior culture or polish, to go once a year to 
New York. Here, too, they sent their children occasionally to 
reside with their relations, and to learn the more polished man- 
Tiers and language of the capital." 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 251 

Yet it is amusing to observe, as we read the historian Smith's 
account of customs and ways in this provincial capital, how 
very provincial it still was. " In the city of New York," he 
w^rites, " through our intercourse with Europeans we follow 
the London fashions, though by the time we adopt them they 
became disused in England. Our affluence during the late war 
introduced a degree of luxury in tables, dress, and furniture, 
with which we were before unacquainted, but still [Oh, shades 
of the Puritans, save the mark!] we are not so gay a people as 
our neighbors at Boston, and several of the southern colonies." 

Turning to the interior of the province we learn again, by the 
aid of Smith, that '" the Dutch counties, in some measure, follow 
the example of New York, but still retain many modes peculiar 
to the Hollanders." As late as 1756 he says that " the Dutch 
dialect is still so much used in some counties that the sheriffs 
find it difficult to obtain persons sufficiently acquainted with the 
English tongue to serve as jurors in courts of law." On Long 
Island there were now several flourishing villages, all the way 
from the East River to the eastern end, and fringing both the 
northern and southern shores. Settlements along the Hudson 
were collecting in nuclei for later towns and cities, Ulster 
County numbering six villages of great promise — Kingston, 
Marbletown, Hurley, Rochester, New Paltz, and Walkill — and 
could muster a force of militia of from fifteen to sixteen hundred 
men, besides a troop of horse. 

Thus we are led, step by step, to the other city of the State, 
the quaint old town of Albany. There were scarce four hundred 
houses in it, distributed along a few streets pretty regularly 
laid out at right angles and in parallels. " One very wide and 
long street," we are told in " An American Lady," " lay parallel 
to the river, the intermediate space between it and the shore 
being occupied by gardens." The public edifices " consisted of 
a market-place, or guard-house, a town hall, and the English and 
Dutch churches." They all stood, this writer tells us, in the 
middle of the street that ran up the hill to the fort, at right 



252 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



angles to the other street. It is indeed a rustic borough that she 
describes : " Every house had its garden, well, and a little green 
behind; before every door a tree was planted, rendered interest- 
ing by being coeval with some beloved member of the family." 

We are enabled even to enter these delightful rural habita- 
tions and share meals with their occupants, as we read the 
Swedish traveler. Professor Kalm's, account of his visit in 1749. 
For breakfast the people had bread and butter or milk, or tea 
without milk, the sugar not being put into the cup but held in a 
lump in the mouth as the tea was drank. On the bread were 

sometimes placed slices of 
hung (smoked?) beef. Toffee 
was not very commonly used. 
Dinner consisted of buttermilk 
or fresh milk and bread, and 
boiled or roasted flesh. In some 
families the buttermilk was 
boiled and made into a thin 
kind of porridge, which tasted 
very sour, but was not disagree- 
able in hot weather. At each 
dinner there was a great salad, 
with abundance of vinegar, but 
little or no oil. Supper again 
consisted of bread and butter, 
or bread and milk. Sometimes cheese was served at breakfast 
or dinner, not in slices, but scraped as fine as flour. The drink 
was small beer or water. The houses stood with their gable 
ends to the street, and their gutters dripped nearly into the 
center of the narrower streets. State Street was about five times 
wider than the others. The front doors of houses had seats built 
on the porches or stoops, and here in the evening the occupants 
sat, greeting everybody who passed by. 

To the north of Albany there liad been a Saratoga, but it was 
now no more, and no renewal of it was as vet in si^-ht. The 




VISCOUNT CORN3URY. 



THE EMPIRE fcr'TATE IN THREE CExNTURIES. 



253 



French were at Crown Point and Ogdensburo'. The next con- 
siderable settlement westward was Schenectady. At the time 
that William Johnson passed through it, says Dr. Griffis, there 
was the street of the Martyrs, a sad reminder of the massacre of 
1090. It had its Haudelaer Street, or street of the Traders, as 
well as Albany, and four other thoroughfares were " lined with 
comfortable, one-storied, many-gabled dwellings, with here and 
there neat houses, all or partly of brick. Each house stood with 
its cozy bivalve door, shut at the bottom to keep out pigs and 
chickens, and to keep in the babes, and open at the top to admit 
light and air." 

Thence we pass into the western wilderness, but reclaimed 
now in a good many spots. " Along the Mohawk," Dr. Griffis 
enumerates, " were Schenectady, Crane's Village, Fort Hunter, 
Warrensburg, a hamlet; Caughnawaga (or Fonda), Canajoharle, 
Palatine, German Flats, and Burnet's P^ield, now called Her- 
kimer." In Cherry Valley, just over the hills from the Mohawk 
back of Canajoharie, Scottish settlers had come some years 
before, who contributed a sad chapter to our Revolutionary his- 
tory, as we shall see. Johnstown had received a beginning; 
there was a fort on the site of Rome, and far beyond all Avas 
distant and lonely Oswego, a military post all the year round, 
a trading post part of the year. Such was the province in the 
middle of the eighteenth century, and as such it entered into 
the stirring times of the French and Indian War and of the 
Revolution, out of which it emerged an independent State. 



o o7 



o 



GALLATIN ARMS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

WAR AGAINST CANADA AND REVOLT AT HOME. 



HERE remain to be considered only five more governors 
of New York as a colon}^, and of these four came and 
went in rapid succession, or their terms were inter- 
rupted by other more congenial public acts, so that 
none of these made much impression upon the conduct of affairs 
in the province. But, on the other hand, through their inactivity 
or absence, two prominent colonists came to the foregroun<l and 
acted the part of vigorous and conscientious rulers, fully intent 
upon shaping the destinies that were committed to their han<ls. 
The names of these men are already familiar to us; one was 
James De Lancey and the other C'adwalla<ler Colden. 

Immediately upon the death of Governor Osborn, in October, 
1753, De Lancey, as regularly commissioned lieutenant-governor 
since 1747, took into his hands the administration. Clinton's 
futile dislike had kept the commission from him until the day of 
Osborn's inauguration, only two days before; and thus the 
sudden elevation which the unlooked-for tragedy brought to his 
enemy, must have been anything but pleasant to Clinton during 
the month before his sailing for England. 

De Lancey's position was a curious one: in opposing Clinton 
he had been the leader of the Assembly in its bold stand against 
royal prerogative in the matter of the revenues. Now, as acting- 
governor, he had it in express charge to make the royal instruc- 
tions on that point effective. He managed the situation with 
tact, being duly strenuous in pressing the king's demands and 




M^/m /a/i 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 255 

mildly tolerant of the Assembly's legislation inconsistent there- 
with. While, also, the Assembly was more inclined to yield the 
])oint of time-grants, because of its confidence in the integrity of 
the man who was to administer their employment, De Lancey 
thus remained the chief magistrate for nearly two years, or until 
September, 1755. 

By an order of council, dated January 29, 1755, Charles Hardy, 
l]sq., was appointed captain-general and governor-in-chief of 
New York. Like his predecessor, Clinton, he Avas a sailor of the 
rank of captain in the royal navy, and, like him, too, he had 
previously been governor of Newfoundland. He sailed for New 
York in July, and arrived at his destination September 2, and the 
first communication addressed to him by his superiors, the Lords 
of Trade, bore the superscription to Sir Charles Hardy, Knight, 
so that he must have been knighted by the king before he started. 
The merits and abilities which brought about such distinctions 
as a gubernatorial post and knighthood lay, however, only in the 
line of his chosen profession, and no one appreciated that fact 
better than the frank sailor himself. His appearance on the 
scene did not really make much difference as to the chief direc- 
tion of affairs. Hardy was very glad to find at his right hand so 
able a lieutenant as James De Lancey, and he left the burden of 
government undisturbed upon his shoulders. 

Some of De Lancey's enemies called in question his right to 
bear at one and the same time the two offices of lieutenant- 
governor and chief justice, and the matter was submitted to the 
attorney-general. But the decision was in favor of De Lancey's 
continuance in both places, and Governor Hardy was glad to 
have it so. William Smith has made us familiar with an in- 
cident which gives us a charming view of Hardy's unpretentious 
nature, and illustrates how much he relished the decision afore- 
said. The historian was present with his father, the noted 
counselor of the same name, at a trial in which the governor was 
to preside by virtue of his office. But he remarked: " I have been 
justice of the peace in England, but know nothing of the law. 



256 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

My knoAvledge, gentlemen, relates to the sea; that is my sphere. 
If you want to know how the wind and tide suit for going down 
to Sandy ITook, I can tell you that. How can a captain of a ship 
know anything of your demurrers in law? " As soon as De 
Lancey came in, he turned the duty of presiding over to him, and 
blandly assented to his decision. 

Columbia College would now be looked upon as an institution 
of an interest mainly local to New York City itself. Whatever 
it may be more than that to the State to-day, its beginning as 
King's College was an occasion of pride and gratulation for the 
entire province. Some of its youth had gone to New England — 
to Harvard or Yale — for a university education; now the choicest 
of the younger element could remain among the more congenial 
surroundings of the home colony. Classes had been formed a 
few years previously, but, in the autumn of 1753, matters had 
progressed so far that a president w^as chosen, Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Johnson, of the Episcopal Church. Among the largest private 
donors to the college was Sir Charles Hardy, and as gifts kept 
flowing in and students flocked to the doors of its inadequate 
classrooms, there was resolved to put up a suitable building on 
ground donated by Trinity Church, and forming part of its great 
farm. 

Before Governor Hardy terminated his administration, he was 
enabled to connect his name with the institution in another way. 
In August, 1756, the cornerstone of the first building occupied 
by Columbia, on the down-town site, was laid amid impressive 
ceremonies by Sir Charles. Soon there were issuing from its 
walls such men as John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton, and 
Gouverneur Morris, training their intellectual life by its 
courses of study, but repudiating thoroughly the spirit of con- 
servatism, and mistaken, though doubtless conscientious, loyalty 
to the crown when came the final break with England. 

Thus far we have not had occasion to mention the development 
of that extreme corner of the State designated Staten Island. 
But, under Hardy, its population had attained a sufficient figure 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



257 



to warrant the establishment of regular eomnninication with 
New York City. In 1755 a ferry was inani^nrated, Avhich, by 
means of wind and sail, conveyed travelers from Manhattan to 
the other island. It was not a very safe trij) when the weather 
conditions were adverse, nor Avas it then to be accomplished 
more than once a day in retnrn. The population numbered 
twenty-three hundred semis, ^lanhattan Island counted thirteen 
thousand persons in 175G, and Long Island had at least twenty 
thousand. A stage route to Philadelphia, in 1750, was another 
sign of the times. It astonished 
the world of its day by the an- 
nouncement that it proposed to 
carry passengers "■ through in 
three days only " between New 
York and the (Quaker City. 

Having by his own choice 
relegated the business of gov- 
ernment to l)e Lancey, Sir 
Charles's occupation was mere- 
1}^ playing at being governor. 
It was a little tiresome for a 
man of active si)irit, and more 
than once he requested to be 
relieved and transferred to a 
naval command, to take part in 

the stirring events of the French and Indian War that was now 
u])on the country. His desire was gratiticMl in 1757. He was 
made rear-admiral of the White, commanding the expedilion 
engaged in the reducticm of Louisburg in 1758. Later he rose to 
the rank of vice-admiral, and when he retire<l from active service 
he again followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Clinton, in 
being appointed governor of Creenwich Hospital, in 1771. He 
(lied in the year 1780, aged seventy-five. 

Hardy's departure placed the administration in De Lancey's 
hands again in a visible and avowed manner, on June 3, 1757. 




AUGUSTUS JAY. 



258 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Without mucli change in policy, as indicated above, he continued 
thus to rule for more than three years, an acute attack of 
asthma suddenly terminating his brilliant career, at the early 
age of fifty-seven years, on August 4, 17G0. Then came the chief 
direction of affairs at length into the hands of his rival, Cad- 
wallader Golden. He had been in the council nearly forty years, 
and, as the oldest member, was its president now. As such he 
succeeded De Lancey as acting-governor. 

Just a year later, on August 8, 1761, his position was improved 
by being made lieutenant-governor, the office which Clinton so 
greatly desired to confer upon him. Evidently the government 
of England was not in a hurr}' to appoint a successor to Hardy; 
but now one soon followed, and Golden ruled as lieutenant- 
governor, in the present instance, for only two months. He Avas 
to take up the mantle of dying or otherwise departing governors 
many a time thereafter. Even now he had attained the con- 
siderable age of seventy-three years — rather late to begin the 
most active portion of his career, and to pursue it for fifteen 
years longer. 

Precisely throughout the period we have been discussing, from 
1755, when Sir Gharles Hardy came, to 1761, when Golden first 
became lieutenant-governor, the colonies were going through 
the famous struggle known as the " French and Indian War.'' 
It was almost coterminous with the " Seven Years' War " in 
Europe, beginning and ending a little earlier, but involving the 
same national interests as between France and England. The 
war has two notable incidents that may be regarded as marking 
its beginning and its end : the defeat of Braddock, in 1755, and 
the surrender of Montreal and all Canada in 1760. Between 
these two outposts all the events range themselves. 

And many of the most important have made the soil of New 
York historic, for, both actively and passively, this province 
played a prominent part in the proceedings. In the first place 
it was the main base of supplies for all the armies. Lieutenant- 
Governor De Lancey urged upon the British government the 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 259 

advantages of New York City for planting tliere " a general 
magazine of arms and military stores." The suggestion was so 
obviously valuable that the ministry soon made arrangements 
that the stores and supplies " to be sent to North America (except 
such as are ordered for particular services) should be lodged in a 
store-house at New York, under the care of a Storekeeper to be 
appointed by His Majesty for that purpose, subject to the Con- 
troul and direction of the person who shall be appointed to the 
command of His Maj'*^'^ forces there, and of the Gov"" or Com- 
mander-in-Chief of New York." Here, too, were the head- 
quarters of the various commanding generals during the course 
of the war. 

New York as a province was the base for most of the cam- 
paigns, and, of course, for that supreme object so often con- 
templated and attempted before — the reduction of Canada. Even 
Braddock's campaign was to be a preliminary movement, to be 
seconded from Niagara; and all the way from that extreme west- 
ern boundary, along the shores of Ontario and the banks of the 
St. Lawrence, and down the western shores of Champlain and 
George and their tributaries, to the northern Hudson itself, con- 
stant battles raged, and foe and friend alternately crossed into 
each other's territories, carrying death and destruction. All this 
long and sinuous frontier was turned into a vast and fatal 
" firing-line." 

The war was also an immense drain on its men and treasure. 
With a population which scarcely numbered eight3^-five thou- 
sand whites, it maintained in the field nearly three thousand 
men. In 1755 the Assembly voted £45,000, and £8,000 in addition 
for enlisting men in Connecticut. A vote for £40,000 followed 
these grants, and again, in 1759, £100,000 in paper money Avas 
added. All this had to be redeemed, and entailed much sacrifice 
on the people of the colony for many a year to come. 

One picturesque feature of the war was the attempt on the 
part of the home government to effect or force some kind of 
concerted action on the colonies. Of their own accord they did 



260 THE E.AiriKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

not take kindly to such action. Tliey were like a rope of «5and. 
Franklin's plan of union of 1754 was intended to remedy this 
evil. But, as we saw, it met with favor neither at home nor 
abroad. The British ministry then proposed to have concert at 
least ill military operations, and thus we come upon the i»to- 
tesque figure of the Earl of Loudoun, bedight in gold lace, and 
tassels, and plumes, commander-in-chief of all the armies 
throughout the American provinces under English rule. 

nis commission established a military power entirely inde- 
pendent of and superior to the governors. It was a splendid 
eminence to occui)y. but the ministry must have taken pains to 
select the man least fitted to fill it. Bancroft disposes of his 
qualifications with one sentence, saying that he was " utterly 
wantiug iu the qualities of a military officer, or of a statesman, 
or of a man in any sort of business.'' This being tru(\ his ai>point- 
nient was a sort of opera Ixniffv performance, reducing to serious 
history the delightful nonsense of a " Pinafore." And we need 
not wonder that Loudoun's course in the colonies was an inces- 
sant exhibition of the most conspicuous incompetence, coupled 
with the most intolerant insolence and insult. He went fcjrth 
from America in a burst of failure. 

Out of the temporarv vision of such concentration of military 
power grew the not unnatural thought of associating royalty 
with it. And it is interesting in passing to note that there was 
a pro])osition in the minds of some to place Duke William of 
C'uiubcrlaiKl, one of the i»rinces of the blcMxl. upon an American 
throne, and give the united colonies, converted into a western 
empire, the British constitution, remodele<l and im]»r()ved. 

At the beginning of the French and Indian War, military 
operations were planned to include four expeditions. It Avas 
before the Loudoun episode, and Major-( General Edwar<l Brad- 
dock was sent out to be commander-in-chief, on a somewhat less 
bombastic plan. He summoned a conference of governors at 
Alexandria, Va., at which De Lancey i)resided, and here it 
was determined that the power of France should be assailed at 



THE EMPIRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 



261 



four vital points — Nova v^ootia, tlio Oliio Valley, Niagara, and 
Lake Cliamplain. It is seen at once that two of these involved 
operations within the province of New York, while the pos- 
session of the Ohio Valley wonld only facilitate the attack on 
Niagara. 

AVe know to what sad endinf>' the expedition to the Ohio 
was doomed. It nu<2,ht hav(^ been different with a diit'erent com- 
mander. Bancroft does not delineate a pleasinii' character: " A 
man in fortunes desperate, in 
manners brntal, in temper des- 
potic; obstinate and intreiVid." 
lie knew far better than Wasli- 
in<.^t()n how to fi,i>ht the Indians, 
and he fell a sacrifice to his obsti- 
nacy on the banks of the ■NFonon- 
galiela, with eighty officers dead 
around him, and Washington 
alone carrying fame from that 
dreadful field. Thus ended the 
9th of July, 1755, for our great 
chief; another notable July in 
his life being when just twenty- 
one 3^ears later he caused the 
Declaration of Independence to be 
read to his army, assembled in 
the present City Hall Park, in 
New York City; he seated upon his horse, at the head of the 
troops collected about him in a hollow square. There was much 
to connect the two days together in a sort of logical sequence 
woven by history. 

New York did not remain without some relation e'^en to the 
expedition which committed the sad outrage at Grand Pre, im- 
mortalized by Longfellow in " Evangeline.'' The peo])le removed 
from Acadia or Nova Scotia were brought in large numbers to 
this province, and distributed among some of the counties to be 




LA LA YEATII QUA PIETH TON, KING 
OF THE M AQUAS. 



262 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

fed and supported. Three hundred and fifty of these unfor- 
tunates arrived at New York City in May, 175G, and the counties 
in the vicinity soon swarmed with them. The magistrates of the 
towns became responsible for their sustenance, and it is pleasant 
to record that the people in general cheerfully bore the burden, 
feeding, clothing, and housing them until provisions for their 
self-support could be carried into effect. 

It was natural that an earnest struggle should mark this war 
for the possession of Crown Point, and all the northern region 
of New York province which it commanded. It had stood an 
encroachment and a menace far within the territory of the colony 
for more than thirt3-four 3'ears. It ought never have been 
permitted to exist at all: to leave it there now unmolested 
Avould be a blunder indeed. Yet it was not easily overcome. The 
French made supreme efforts to retain their hold. 

The expedition against it planned in 1755 was placed under 
the command of Colonel William Johnson. He easily enlisted a 
troop of Indians numbering two hundred men, led by Chief Hen- 
drick, now gray-haired, but with natural force unabated. John- 
son's army consisted of about thirty-four hundred men, including 
the Indians, the whites being mainly volunteer militia from 
Connecticut and Massachusetts. The rendezvous, as usual, was 
Albany. In August an advance party under the New England 
Major-General Phineas Lyman had gone up the river, and built 
Fort Edward at the place on the Hudson still thus designated. 
With this fortification in his rear Johnson marched on to Lake 
George, which received this name from him at this time, it 
having till now borne the French one of Saint Sacrament, 

The governor of Canada sent Baron Dieskau, with seven hun- 
dred regulars and sixteen hundred Canadian militia, to the de- 
fense of the threatened point. There were, in addition, four 
hundred Canadian Indians and three hundred of the Iroquois Six 
Nations. These seemed to be on the wrong side; but they had 
emigrated to Canada, and were perhaps forced into this serA^ice. 
The old alliance, however, held swaj', and they did more harm 



THE E^SIPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 263 

than good to the French. In the first place they played tliem 
false as guides, and when Dieskan supposed he was near Crown 
Point, he was already within a short march of the English posi- 
tion. This was only an open camp on the very bank of Lake 
George, which Johnson had taken great pains to construct, 
omitting, however, to fortify it, except by the defenses tliat 
nature provided in the way of lake and forest. 

Here came the new^s of the approach of the enem3% on the 
evening of September 7, 1755, and the next day a force of a 
thousand men, with two hundred Indians under Hendrick, were 
sent to intercept their march on Fort Edward. An ambuscade 
was formed to receive them, and at the first attack Hendrick 
fell dead from his horse. Though repulsed they marched in an 
orderly manner back to the camp. Dieskau wished to reach the 
latter in tlie pursuit of the retreating Americans at the same time 
with these, so that the confusion of their return might aid him 
to defeat the remainder of the army. But now the Iroquois allies 
played him another trick. They refused to fight the English 
under Johnson, and stood aloof, their example being followed 
by all the other Indians. 

Even yet the situation in the camp, without intrenchment, was 
a critical one. A few trees were leveled, and cannon planted 
behind them and the supply wagons. The New England men 
by their superior marksmanship did fearful execution among the 
French, and probably by this alone gained the day. For five 
hours the battle was kept up, almost every one of the French 
regulars being shot down, and Dieskau himself wounded in 
four places. The action was directed by Lyman, second in com- 
mand, as Johnson retired from the field early, by reason of a 
slight wound. Dieskau was made prisoner and his men fled. 

General Lyman urged pursuit of the enemy, but Johnson chose 
to follow more cautious tactics. He kept the men in the camp 
under arms, all that day and night, and even refused to follow 
the advice of a council of his own officers to advance an<l drive 
the French entirelv from the country. He seemed to think they 



264 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Avere too strongly intrenched, and his own forces were too 
meager. Thus it was soon known that Ticonderoga was occupied 
and fortified by the T^rench, a position in advance even of t'rown 
Point. Still Johnson remained inactive, except in so far as build- 
ing F(n't William Ihmry, at the southern extremity of Lake 
(Jeorge, near the cam}) he had constructed there. Nevertheless 
the victory he had gained over Dieskau was highly applauded 
;ind substantially rewarded by the authorities at home. He was 
made a baronet, received a gift of £5,000, and was raised to the 
rank of gen(n-al. 

In the colonies, however, many were disgusted with his con- 
duct, and claimed that the credit of the victory was really due 
to (leneral Lyman. Even later historians speak strongly on the 
subject, Lossing being specially severe. He states that Johnson 
made no menti(»n of Lyman in the report of the battle, and 
changed the name of Vovt Lyman to Fort Edward. Of the 
rewards Johnson received he says: " They were uuAvorthily be- 
stowed upon an avaricious and immoral man and an unskillful 
general, while a noble, pure, and brave officer was suffered to 
go unnoticed eitliei' by Ids commander or his king." It was such 
things which made emotions rankle in the breast of the colonists 
that boded ill for allegiance in the future. 

The expedition against Niagara was made abortive bj^ the 
disaster on the Monongahela. It was placed under the command 
of (lovernor Shirley, of Massachusetts. Niagara was garrisoned 
by only thirty men, and the fort not much more than an ordinary 
house in great need of repair. But it was not much use hohling 
this distant outpost, with the other forts of the chain in French 
hands. On August 21, Shirley had got as far as Oswego, and 
he did not get any farther. He improved the time in building a 
n(nv fort there, and when he returned to the settlements in 
Oct(d)(M' he left a garrison of seven hundred men under Colonel 
fiercer. The new fort was called Fort Ontario, and stood on the 
east side of the river, while the old one built bv Governor Burnet 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



265 



was on the west side. Thus ended the eampaign of the memor- 
able j^ear 1755 ; M^hen winter c-anie all tlie ])r<>vincial armies had 
been disbanded. 

The next event of importance was the capture of the forts at 
Osweo-Oj in 1756. The celebrated Marquis de ^lontcalm ha<l suc- 
ceeded Baron Dieslwiu as commander of the French forces in 
Canada. Colleetinii' an army of five thousand Frenchinen, Can- 
adians, and Indians at Fort Frontenac (now Kingston, Can.), 
where the St. Lawrence issues 
from Lake Ontario, he crossed 
the lake and appeared before 
Fort Ontario on August 11, 
1756. Colonel ^Mercer and his 
seven hundred men made a 
brave defense against the over- 
whelming force. lie retired 
from the one fort to the other 
in good order, but lu^ was killed 
during the cannonade against 
the latter, and on August 14 
the g a r r i s o n surrendered. 
Montcalm demolished the forts, 
leaving the country open to 
subsequent incursions, and re- 
tired to Canada. 

The forts at Oswego had 
been enabled to make so sturdy 

a defense because they had been abundantly provisioned only 
shortly before by Colonel William Bradstreet, a colonial officer, 
who penetrated the wilderness with only two hundred men, and 
carried supplies of every kind, enough to keep five tliousand men 
for six months. He had done signal sen-vice since in the opera- 
tions in the vicinit}^ of Lake George, which we shall narrate later. 
In 1758, promoted now to the rank of general, he led an army 
to Oswego, with the purpose of avenging its loss. On the way 




FEE YEE NEEN HO GA RON, EMPEROR OF 
THE SIX NATIONS. 



266 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

he stopped at Fort Herkimer, which was then under the com- 
mand of Colonel Charles Clinton, the father of Generals George 
and James Clinton, of Kevolutionary fame, the former the first 
governor of the State, and the latter the father of Governor De 
Witt Clinton. Among- the ranks of his little armj^ also served 
Horatio Gates, a captain at this time, and Nathaniel Woodhull, 
now major, later a general of Long Island militia, president at 
least twice of the Provincial Congress of New York, and remem- 
bered especially for the cruel treatment he received and subse- 
quent death after the battle of Long Island. 

At Fort Stanwix, the general of that name who had built the 
fort, placed twenty-seven hundred men under Bradstreet's com- 
mand, all colonists, and James and George Clinton were among 
the officers of the New York contingent. At Oswego were found 
only the charred remains of the forts, and a wooden cross set up 
as a memorial of the triumph of the French. Crossing the lake 
in open boats, Bradstreet landed his little army one mile from 
Fort Frontenac on August 25, 1758. The movement was a com- 
plete surprise to the enemy, so that while well supplied with 
cannon and mortars, the French made but a feeble resistance. 
On August 27, a date to be made still more famous on Long 
Island eighteen years later, the remnant of the garrison sur- 
rendered, the others having fled. It was a valuable capture, as 
here had been collected a great quantity ®f military stores for 
Fort Duquesne and the other forts along the interior chain of 
French fortifications. There were also nine armed vessels, each 
carrying from eight to eighteen guns. Two of these ships were 
left at Oswego, while Bradstreet and his army returned to Lake 
George to join in operations there. 

Still keeping our attention fixed upon the western parts of The 
State, we notice the logical outcome of this capture of Fort Fron- 
tenac to be the taking of Fort Niagara. This took place the next 
year, 1759. The days of the incompetents had now passed, and 
Generals Wolfe and Amherst were in the land. The expedition 
against Fort Niagara was given in charge of General Prideaux, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 267 

with General Sir William Johnson his second in command. The 
post at Oswego could now be made again a base of supjjlies, with 
Fort Frontenac no longer threatening it from the north. Here 
the forces were gathered together, and the movement against 
Fort Niagara organized. 

The army landed near the fort on July 15, and immediately 
opened a cannonade uj^on it, during which one of the guns burst, 
killing General Prideaux. Johnson was now in command, and 
he pressed the siege with vigor. On July 24 a force of fifteen 
hundred French regulars, aided by Indian allies, attempted to 
relieve the besieged, but Johnson gave them battle and routed 
them effectually. The fort could not hold out after this failure 
to relieve it, and on July 25 the surrender was made. It was 
again a fortunateachievement,and Johnson made himself worthy 
of his baronetcy now, if not at Lake George. Another link in the 
chain of French forts was broken. Perhaps with some exaggera- 
tion natural to one writing of the deeds of a near connection, 
James De Lancey wrote to the home government: " His Majesty 
is now in possession of the most important jiass in all the Indian 
countries." 

The country above Albany was yet to suffer for some years 
after the victory at Lake George, from the monumental in- 
capacity of which English generals have so often been splendid 
illustrations. There were a pair of incompetents under Loudoun 
by the names of Webb and Abercrombie. It was due to the first 
that our annals record the sad calamity of Fort William Henry, 
which also thrills us in Cooper's best Leatherstocking Tale. The 
next year after his exploit at Oswego, Montcalm was at Ticon- 
deroga, with his eye still further inward, having the design to 
take Fort William Henry and Fort Edward, and so open a clear 
path to Albany. He sent out scouting parties, and Marin, the 
devastator of Saratoga in an earlier war, gathered scalps with 
his Indians almost within gunshot of tlie walls of Fort Edward. 

With an army of eight thousand soldiers from France and 
Canada and two thousand Indians, he approached Fort William 



268 THE EM PIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Henry in July. 1757. Lientenant-Colonol ^Monro was stationed 
here with only four hundred and forty-nine men. Within the 
lines, encamped on the site of the later Fort George, were seven- 
teen hundred more. Montcalm very soon cut off communication 
with h^ort Edward. (Jeneral Webb, one of Lon<h)un's lieutenants 
and worthy of him, was stationed at Fort Edward with an army 
of four thousand men, to which General Johnson brought a con- 
siderable addition of provincials. The i^'eceding year, having 
been advised by the indefatigable Bradstreet that ^NFontcalm was 
about to make a descent on Oswego, General Webb marched up 
the Mohawk to h<^ad him off. But he took so long a time de- 
fending himself on the way against imaginary foes, that he had 
not got as far as Fort Stanwix, or Bome, when the news of Mont- 
calm's success reached him. He then hastened back with fine 
precipitation to (Jermau Flats and Fort ITerkimer, until he found 
that ]\r(mtcalm was not after him, wl>en lie proceeded baclv to 
Albany more leisurely. 

In the present campaign he acted with equal promptness and 
courage. Sir William Johnson, without making much of a stop 
on his arrival, was ])reparing to go on further beyttnd Fort 
Edward and fall upon the (memy. General Webb ordered him 
to cease advancing and join liis own inactive four tliousand. This 
was unendurable to the energetic colonists, whose homes were 
threatened by the success of the French. The militia demanded 
l() be led to the relief of the im])(U-iled handful at William ITenrv. 
Webb then promised to let as many go as would volunteer; but 
when he found that every provincial soldier to a man volun- 
teered, he basely broke his word, and retained them in the camp. 
lie sent also a note to ]Monro, advising him to surren<ler. This 
fell into Montcalm's hands, wlio was only too glad to forward it 
to its destination. 

The brave Monro would not heed the poltroon's advice, and 
fought for two days longer against the fearful odds. Then the 
few cannon he had burst from the too rapid and frequent 
discharges, and liis ammunition was also nearly gone, and on 



THE EMPIRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 



269 



August 9, 1757, lie c-iipitulated. He Avas permitted to march out 
with the houors of war, and ^loutealm had secured wliat he 
thought were iuviolabU' pledges from the ludiaus to observe the 
obligations of civilized warfare. It was all iu vain. The next 
day the savages fell upon the helpless English. French officers 
defended them at the risk of their own lives, but not more than 
one thousand of :Monro's twenty-two hundred reached Fort 
Edward. Montcalm destroyed Fort William Henry, and Webb 
was not likely to make a stand 
at Fort Edward. It was high 
time that the reign of incom- 
petency should cease, or the 
colonies would soon be French 
possessions. 

It ceased when William Pitt 
became prime minister. With 
him came to America (lenerals 
James Wolfe and Sir Jeffrey 
Andierst. who took Louisbiirg 
in 175S. But lower down the 
coast there Avas still General 
Abercrombie. He was made 
conunander-in-chief of an army 
of seven thousand r(\gulars and 
ten thousand provincials; this 
leadership being seconded by 
Lord Howe, a young man of 

tine parts, who was the idol of the army and couhl depend upon 
being followed by the troo])s in any enter])rise. This great arjiiy 
rendezvoused at Albany, as usual, and thence, by the way of Fort 
Edward and Lake George, marched northward to accomplish the 
reduction of Ticonderoga. It took some tinu^ to collect so large 
ct f(>rce, and the little city of Albany and the cam])ing-places 
along the march, where the gathering of the " clans " was 
awaited, were made lively with the martial stir of disci]>lin(^ and 




ECON OH KOAN, KING OF THE RIVER 
NATIONS. 



270 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

training, as well as with the pranks that whiled away idle hours. 

One of these pranks has become historic, and bore fruit of an 
unexpected nature. The New England contingent arrived in 
June, and caused infinite merriment to the regulars, not only on 
{iccount of their variegated accoutrement, but also by reason of 
the queer tunes that were played by their musicians. The psalm 
tunes of oldest date were prevalent among them, and other 
melodies equally ancient and grating. Dr. Shackburg, a surgeon 
attached to one of the regular regiments, and a wag as well as a 
musician, composed the air of " Yankee Doodle," and, handing it 
to one of the redoubtable bandmasters, assured him it was one 
of the most ancient and approved tunes. His word was accepted 
for it, and soon the officers who were let into the secret wore 
convulsed with laughter when they heard " Yankee Doodle " 
assiduously rendered for the delectation and edification of New 
England's motley troops. The English officers were convulsed 
with something else when they listened to " Yankee Doodle " at 
Cornwallis's surrender in 1781. 

This formidable army accomplished nothing. It traversed 
Lake George in all its length and landed to storm the defenses of 
Ticonderoga. Unfortunately, however, during a preliminary 
skirmish, while some of the troops became confused in the 
forest. Lord Howe, around whom centered all the hope of the 
army, was killed. Abercrombie was not the man to go on in the 
face of this discouragement. He had lost his right arm, and 
hesitat'ion seized upon him, as it had Webb before him. Mont- 
calm had only thirty-six hundred men within his lines; but he 
had disposed his defenses with skill, and conducted the resist- 
ance with great vigor. One determined attack only was ordered 
by the English general, in which nearly two thousand of his 
men lost their lives."' Then Abercrombie gave up the fight; he 
ordered a retreat, and it was conducted like a panic. It was the 
end of the campaign in New York that year. 

Things went better in 1759 under Sir Jeffrey Amherst. Again 
there was at Albany the gathering of the troops, the regulars 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 271 

from the mouth of the Hudson, the New England contingents 
from the east, Johnson and other leaders from the Mohawk and 
the west, attended by friendly Indians. But the entire force 
mustered this year was only eleven thousand men, six thousand 
less than those who had so hopefully followed Abercrombie and 
Lord Howe. Yet it proved far more efficient. Ticonderoga was 
besieged with such skill and vigor that the French abandoned 
it after five days, on June 2(3, 1759. They retired to Crown Point, 
followed by the English, and that fort, too, so long a thorn in 
the side of New York, was abandoned on July 1. 

There seemed to be no reason why this march to Canada 
should not be facilitated all the way by the retreat of the French, 
and Wolfe's expedition much needed the diversion produced by 
Amherst's appearance before Montreal. But, having done so 
unusual an amount of conquest for an English general on his 
way to Canada, the blight of inactivity and dela}^ fell even upon 
Amherst. He wasted the remainder of the summer reconstruct- 
ing the defenses at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, places of no 
immediate importance if Canada should be reduced. If Wolfe 
had been beaten at Quebec, this delay of Amherst might have 
been fatal to him. 

The story of the Plains of Abraham is familiar to us all, and 
the real conquest of Canada was accomplished when Quebec fell, 
in September, 1759. Only a raid from Amherst's force reached a 
village in the vicinity of Montreal then, but the main army retired 
again to the lower settlements, only to prolong the costly struggle 
for another year. Then, in 1760, three expeditions were organ- 
ized against Montreal. One sailed up the St. Lawrence, past the 
now harmless stronghold of Quebec. A second went up the old 
route from Albany along Lakes George and Champlain, placed 
under the command of a colonel, and of but small proportion 
because the route lay perfectly open. 

The third and main expedition, under the command of Am- 
herst himself, was concentrated for the final start at Oswego. 
There was no serious opposition to either of the armies. Fort 



272 THE E:MriRE STATE IX THREE CENTURH^:S. 

Froiiteiiac was no more, one or two others in Amherst's way 
were abaiidoued or surreudered, the IiuUaii tribes ah)n_n' the St. 
Lawrence, alwa^'S easily persuaded to supj^ort the winning' side, 
had no Ioniser any doubt whi(di side this was now, and offered 
no liostilities. On Ani^nst 30 the tliree colnmns liad concentrated 
theii' forces in front of Canada's hist stronghold, and on Sep- 
tember S, 17(50, (lOA'ernor De Vandreuil surrendered all of New 
France in America to Great Britain, and the " half century of 
conflict '' was over. 

There Avas an echo or aftermath of Indian warfare known as 
Pontiac's Conspiracy, a last desperate attempt of the Indians 
in the Northwest to stay the tide of white aooression. And the 
final episode of this, too, belonij;s to NeAv York history. For it 
Avas to Oswego that Pontiac came to treat for peace. Here he 
had api)oiuted to meet Sir William Johnson. Starting from the 
^faumee IJiver he skirted the slion^s of the Erie and the Ontario 
lakes in his canoe. When he arrived at Oswego he Avas saluted 
by salvos of cannon like a veritable potentate. Here the sachems 
of the Six Iroquois Nations had also come together, and the tents 
of Avliite and red chicd's and Avarriors Avere duly pitched on the 
])lains. The conference lasted from July 23 to 31, 176G. Wam- 
pum belts Avere exidianged, tears real or symbolic were Avii>ed 
away, bones Avere covered Avith earth, and ears Avere opened, and 
then came the endless speeches. The upshot of all Avas a treaty 
of ]>eace, and Pontiac Avent aAvay. to be assassinated three years 
later l>y an irreconcilable of his oAvn party. 

Thus in ]7()0 the threat of the North had been remoA'ed from 
the frontiers of NeAv York jn'ovince. She had freely expended of 
her treasure and her men, as Ave saAV, and she Avas also the heavi- 
est sufferer in this Avar. The Indians had carried their ravages as 
far south as Ulster and Orange counties. ^Niarin, of Saratoga 
fame, as Avas said a few pages ba(dv, had murd(H'ed and burned 
to Avithin sight of the walls of Fort EdAvard. Tliree hundred 
French and Indians sAvooped down upon Palatine Village, on 
the Mohawk, and, at three o'clock of a November morning, fell 



THE E.MPIIiE STATE IN THREE CEXTURIES. 



273 



upon the defeusek'ss jx'ojtle, killing forty and rarrving' one hun- 
dred and fifty away to eaptivity. Johnson was not far away, and 
the approach of the French had not escaped his vigilance. He had 
begged Abercrombie for a force of rangers to be kept ready for 
such winter assaults, but in vain, and so not only this village 
but all the Mohawk ^'alley, lay open to attack, and there were 
unrest and panic among all the settlements. 

The very efforts to save the province, as well as the country, 
from the enemy at the north, had been a trial hard to endure 
for New York, for it necessi- 
tated the march of armies 
through her feeble settlements 
at the outpost of civilization to 
the north and to the west, and 
there was often rude treatment, 
unjust impressment of horses 
and cattle, unceremonious 
(juartering of soldiers, and 
forced contributions of provi- 
sions for subsistence. There was 
even a result disadrantageous 
to a positive degree from the /("" 
conquest of the French, as re- 
garded the relations between 
the settlers and the Indians of 
the Six Nations. They and the 

natives had been drawn together into friendship and alliance by 
the common enmity and common danger. There was now no 
such need on the part of the government to conciliate the In- 
dians in order to play them off against the French. The con- 
ciliation was largely left to depend now ui)on the actual contact 
of friendliness or unfriendliness which the two parties should 
dc^em fit or make possible to establish. And there were sources 
of disturbance abundant in the rough and ready intercourse of 
border life in the impenetrable forest. 




COL. SAMUEL VETCH, 



274 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

These eventful five years have brought us to the beginning of a 
new governor's term. Sir Charles Ilardj was finally succeeded 
in 1761 by Major-General Robert Monckton. There was now a 
new king upon the throne of England, the third George, so in- 
teresting a character to us of the United States, without whose 
admirable blundering we might never have been the United 
States. He was the grandson of George II., his father 
having died as Prince of Wales, and he began his reign in 
October, 1760, a month after the surrender of Canada. On March 
20, 1701, General Monckton was appointed governor of NeAv 
York by George III. He was already in America, within the 
bounds of his province, being in command of the king's forces, 
which had been quartered and encamped in large numbers on 
Staten Island because of its healthful situation. 

The new governor was the son of Viscount Galway, of Scot- 
land. He had learned the art of war in Flanders during the War 
of the Austrian Succession, and in 1753 had been appointed to 
service in America. He was made lieutenant-governor of Xova 
Scotia in 175G, and in 1759 was placed second in command under 
General Wolfe in the expedition against Quebec. In the action 
that killed his chief, he himself was severely wounded, and, as a 
reward for his part in the victory, he was raised to the rank of 
major-general. As we must dismiss him with but a brief ac- 
count, we account it worth while here, as does another historian, 
to note that when he was offered a command in the Eevolution- 
ary War, lie declined the service, refusing to fight against men 
Avho had shared with him the perils of the Avar against France. 

A man with such a record and such sentiments toward them, 
we are not surprised to learn, was a great favorite with the 
])eople of New York. Unfortunately, with great lack of tact and 
judgment, the aged lieutenant-governor ran bliu« up against 
this popularity by taking a very ungracious stand. In October 
Governor ^lonckton's commission arrived from England, and on 
November 15, 1761, he formally presented it to the council. It 
happened that the instructions did not accompany the conimis- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 275 

sion, and upon this technicality Golden based an objection t(» the 
governor's being received, and rather hinted that it made his 
appointment invalid. Monckton had contemplated favoring 
Colden in a special manner by allowing his salary to go on as 
lieutenant, which usually ceased when a governor was appointed. 
He refused to allow this now, and upon being subjected to an- 
other piece of Colden's impertinence, threatened to suspend him, 
but was dissuaded by friends of both. 

The aged statesman went on almost uninterruptedly in the 
exercise of the chief authority, for General Monckton left before 
the end of the month as commander of the expedition against 
Martinique, in the West Indies. He returned to his post in June, 
1762, and remained for just one year, when Golden again was 
left in power for more than two years, until the arrival of Gov- 
ernor Sir Henry Moore, in November, 1765. As troubles in- 
creased between England and her colonies, Monckton felt less 
and less inclined to carry out the instructions against the people 
of his province, and hence he resigned its government. 

His successor was a fortunate selection, as he, too, was in sym- 
pathy with the people, and of a mild and inoffensive disposition. 
He came just after the violent clash with Golden about the 
stamped paper, to be noticed below; and throughout the four 
years of his incumbency he disarmed opposition by consideration 
for the feelings of the people. Golden had made the fort bristle 
with armed men and cannon, in the fear of being attacked for 
landing the stamped paper. Sir Henry, almost at once ordered 
the cannon removed and the gates thrown open. While Golden, 
the colonist, made himself constantly obnoxious by officious 
loyalty to the crown, Sir Henry Moore passed through four 
exciting years without incurring the hatred of the people in the 
least, and when he died at his post, on September 11, 1769, the 
city and province were greatly distressed, for he was not only 
respected but loved. 

So once more, on September 13, Dr. Golden came to the chair 
of state, now eighty-one years old, but as ready for the fray with 



276 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

the Spirit of liberty as ever. He had spent nearly all his time 
at his country-seat, Spring Hill, near Whitestone, on Long 
Island. A year of office-bearing was his, when, on October 19, 
1770, the Earl of Dunmore arrived to take his place as governor 
of the province. lie was here scarcely seven months, but there 
was time enough for the exhibition of a failing which seems to 
have grown upon Golden with age, and which had made trouble 
with Monckton. Dunmore was compelled to bring a suit against 
Colden for some part of the salary. 

In July, 1771, the earl was already on his way to Virginia, of 
which he had been appointed governor, and the last of the series 
of royal governors of the colony of New York appears on the 
scene in the person of William Tryon. To mention Colden once 
more, while there was no interval between governors to put him 
at this time into office, he resumed the chief magistracy again 
for one year and three months, from April 7, 1774, to June 28, 
1775, during Tryon's leave of absence in England. He was th.en 
eight3^-six A'ears old; and, as he did not die until September, 1770, 
lie was a living illustration of the fact (having been born in 1G88) 
that but a single lifetime spanned the interval between the Eng- 
lish revolution of that year, and the American revolution, 
whereupon it had no uncertain bearing. 

We must go back now and observe what were the steps that 
had already been taken to bring on this later revolution, when 
Tryon assumed the government and which made him the last of 
(he colonial govei-nors. It is nid necessary to <]well at any great 
hMigth on tlie agitation that prevailed in the country in con- 
nection with the imposition of the Stamp Act. That belongs 
rather to a history of the whole union; but to understand the 
part that was taken by tlie State a clear conception should be 
had of a few details. The French and Indian War, with its con- 
fouiitant in Eur(>i>e, the Scnen Years' War. had cost England 
immense sums. It had doubled the public debt, which had 
risen to one hundred and forty millions of pounds sterling, or, 
say, seven hundx'ed millions of dollars. 



THE ExMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



277 



Tlie statesmen of EnoJand, witli Pitt, '' the friend of America/' 
among them, thouglit that it would be bnt rioht that the cohmies 
iiere should aid in bearing the burden of this debt, in lielping to 
l»a.v it off. There could only be one opinion about this, either in 
England or in America; but the question was, how should the 
colonists be made to bear the burden? This question was too 
readily answered in England by the proposal to impose taxes 
directly, ignoring the machinery of government that had here 
been set up. We can easily judge how such direct imposition 
would strike a people who had since 1709 been strenuous in 
guarding the taxing of them- 
selves. 

The fact that the people of 
the colonies were so greatly 
stirred by the cry " No taxa- 
tion without representati(»n,'" 
has sometimes been misun- 
derstood, as if they were 
clamoring for representation 
in Parliament; that some 
members from across the 
Atlantic should sit with that 
body in London. This would 
not have been a reasonable 
demand, perhaps; nor was it 

put forward. The colonists wanted no members of Parliament, 
but taxation of themselves through the regularly constituted 
channels, the provincial legislatures or colonial assemblies, going 
by various names in different provinces. 

Now the trouble w^as that these " constituted channels '' were 
Tiot looked upon in that light at all: not at least as ^'constitu- 
tional " in any sense. They were not conceded to be a right at all, 
only a concession in their very existence. There had been the 
most persistent refusal to recognize the constitutionality of the 
assemblies, and therefore were their 'Sacts," esjiecially in the 




BISHOP GILBERT BURNET. 



278 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

matter of the revenue, peculiarly exasperating to the English 
government, who sent over every governor of New York, from 
Lord Lovelace down to Tryon, with imperative instructions to 
demand of the Assembly that it surrender its firm grasp upon the 
treasury. And now the king and the ministry saw a chance to 
work their will at last. There was no longer any danger from 
the north, the great expenditures for their safety would over- 
whelm the i)rovincials with gratitude, the signal triumph of 
arms had given evidence of power to enforce the will of the 
government, and, altogether, now" seemed the time to press the 
enforcement of royal prerogative as against arrogated colonial 
privileges. 

And George III. was the man to commit that enormous 
blunder. As Thackeray said, trouble began when they got a king 
who could no more govern than the two Georges who preceded 
him, but who yet proposed to do so. In this pleasant process, 
sure to be hailed with delighted submission by a people accus- 
tomed to quite the opposite for two generations, and who had 
just learned that they had men in the ranks who could fight, 
and men among the officers who could lead — in this process bucli 
small matters would have to occur by incident as the annulling 
of charters, the rendering of judges dependent for their every 
breath upon the crown, and the practical abolition of the in- 
dependence of juries, or of the finality of their verdicts. 

Those who liked this sort of medicine would then be further 
put upon another palatable diet. They would be enabled to 
rejoice in the exhilarating privilege of having a tax impos-ed 
upon them directly by Parliament. And this was to be effected 
by the Stamp Act, requiring all legal instruments, bills of sale, 
marriage licenses, etc., to be executed upon paper bearing a 
stamp, all the way from one shilling to thirty. The act was 
passed in March, 1705, and was to go into effect on November 1. 
Protests against it had been of no avail; the assemblies of various 
colonies had communicated on the subject by means of " commit- 
tees of correspondence," and when the news of the passage of 





I'Bij ' 11/ 1} B'.BaB, imi. a nrjummpiism-im. irii,. elimil,,. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 279 

the Stamp Act reached America, a congress was called to meet 
in New York on October 7, 17G5. 

It was the first act of union, although not all the colonies were 
represented. It adjourned on October 28, after preparing three 
addresses, one to the king, one to Parliament, and one to the 
people of England, protesting against the act. On October 23, 
the ship bringing the stamped paper to New York anchored in 
the harbor. Colden could get none of the captains in port to take 
the responsibility of landing it. On the evening of Novembei' 1, 
the date for the going into effect of tlu' act, there was a demon- 
stration in the streets of the city, and Colden's effigy was burned 
at Bowding Green, in front of the fort walls. Such movements 
were organized by the " Sons of Liberty," or " Liberty Boys,'' 
wdio represented the more violent and radical section of the 
friends of liberty. 

A more effective means of resistance was that pursued by the 
sober element of the community. On October 31, 1765, the night 
before the momentous November 1, the merchants of New York 
signed a non-importation agreement. By this they agreed to 
import no goods whatever from England so long as the Stamp 
Act was in effect. The scheme was proposed to the merchants 
of other cities, and Boston and Philadelphia soon followed suit. 

It proved an almost self-ruinous, but most potent weapon of 
defense, for soon all mercantile England was in arms, and clam- 
ored for the repeal of the Stamp Act as loudly as the Americans. 
Thus it came to be that the obnoxious measure was only short- 
lived. Exactly a year after its passage, in March, 17r)(>, the Stamp 
Act was repealed. Then there were rejoicings and loyal demon- 
strations galore, and up went the liberty poles. Those in New 
York City gave occasion to frequent collisions with the troops 
quartered there, and, as one result, there occurred on January 
18, 1770, the " Battle of Golden Ilill," in John street, in which 
a couple of American sailors lost their lives, thus antedating and 
anticipating the " Boston Massacre," in March of the same year, 



280 



THE EMPIRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 



whose five victims are usnally acconnted the first martyrs in the 
cause of American iu(h»|)en(U^nce. 

Although repealini>' the t^tamp Act, the right to tax the col- 
(mies was distinctly asserted by Parliament, and in 17(59 it was 
done by laying duties upon glass, ])ainters' colors, a few other 
articles, and tea. At once the mercliants of New York took up 
again the weai)on that had proved so formidable before. A 
second non-importation agreement was formed, affecting all the 
articles subject to duty. It was kept faithfully by the men of 
New York, although secretly broken by those of other cities 




VIEW OF NEW YORK, 1732. 

until the strain of that false dealing compelled them to openly 
announce the abandonment of the agreement. But even before 
this, the duties had been taken off all the articles but tea. Then 
the Americans drew the line at this. No tea was imported from 
England, and no tea was drunk, except that smuggled into the 
land by the nimble agents of the Dutch East India Company. 

The English company A^■as nearly ruined, when tlie king and 
ministry thought to cat(di the Americans by guile. They reduced 
the duty to so low a figure that English tea could uiulerbid even 
the smuggled Dutch tea. But it would not do. It was not price 
the people were aft<M' but principle. Then Boston had its tea 
l»arty. on D(H-(Mub(M' Kl, 1773, and Tharleston and Philad(^l)>hia 



THE EMPIRE STATE IiN THREE CENTURIES. 281 

declined the tea. New York sent back one tea ship, and threw 
the cargo of another into the East liiv(n'. 

It was tlie hist straAv that broke the earners back; the patience 
of tlie English government was exhausted; it would now try its 
power. The Boston Port Bill was passed in March, 1774, without 
a voice or a vote against it. By this, after June 1, the poi-l of 
Boston was closed to all commerce, customs officers were re- 
moved from it, and n() merchandise c-ould be loaded or discharged 
there, until the king shouhl see tit to allow it. The city was also 
to indemnify the East India Company for the tea destroyed, 
(reneral Gage was made governor of Massachusetts, and sailed 
witli four regiments from Portsmouth, Avith the avowed pur})ose 
of forcing Boston to obedieiic(\ It was not, however, a question 
of one city any longer. The Boston I'ort P>ill w\as a challenge to 
the entire country, and it was gallantly taken up. Now came 
into vogue Franklin's motto of an earlier day: " Unite or die." 
The colonies chose to unite and live. 

In the midst of arbitrary proceedings sustained by armed 
power, Boston nominated five delegates to a congress of the 
colonies to be held at Philadelphia. New York and the others 
appointed a similar number, elected by popular vote. On Sep- 
tember 5,1771,tlieColonial Congress met and prepared addresses, 
as had done the one in 1705. Its most important act was to order 
or recommend the election of delegates to another congress to 
meet on ^lay 11, 1775. When that date arrived things had 
occurred which called for more definite acts and provisions for 
the future. The delegates from New York to the first congvoss 
were all residents of the city, but with family interests reaching 
into the interior. Three were merchants, Philip Livingsl»)n, 
John Alsop, Isaac Low; and two lawyers, John Jay and James 
Duane. 

Meanwhile we must not forget that all this time there was a 
governor of the province of New York, and the last one of that 
series. William Tryon, now lieutenant-general, began lif:> as 
captain of the footguards in 1751. He rose as the years 



282 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

jirogressed to colonel, and in 1764 was made lieutenant-governor 
of North Carolina, and '' gazetted " governor the next jear. 
Theni-e he was transferred to New York, as some vigorous hand- 
ling of an insurrection in North Carolina promised ability to cope 
with the situation here. There are various estimates of his 
character. When he went off on his leave of absence to Eng- 
land in April, 1774, an impartial writer in the pa^Der of that 
date said that " no governor of the province was ever treated 
by all degrees of people with more respect and affection; nor did 
any ever show more sensibility of it, or take a more affectionate 
leave of the people." 

We know Tryon rather by what he did during the Eevolution, 
and, based on that, O'Callaghan says: " It is unnecessary to 
speak of his career in America, as that is alread}^ as notorious 
as it was odious." Only lately, in June, 1893, the world was 
startled by the fate that met a descendant of the governor, 
Admiral Sir George Tryon, who went down in his flagship, the 
" Victoria," in the Mediterranean, as the result of a collision v\ith 
another ship, caused by his own blunder. When, in 1772, Albany 
County was slightly relieved of its immense size by the creation 
of two counties, one at the north and the other at the west, the 
latter was named Tryon County after the governor, going by that 
name all through the Revolution, becoming Montgomery County 
in 1784. 

While committees of correspondence, and liberty boys, and 
colonial congresses were taking up the battle for freedom, the 
same battle was also fought on the old ground of the Assembly. 
The contest that began under Lord Lovelace was not forgotten 
as it neared the end to which it pointed so long ago. The new 
governor was made aware of it when he met the first assembly 
after his arrival. It voted him a salary of two thousand pounds. 
They knew very well tliat this was in defiance of the king's in- 
structions, for Dunmore had notified them in January of the 
same year (1771) that he would not be permitted to accept a 
salary from the Assembly, but that it would be paid directly 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



283 



from the king's treasury. This was part of the new policy to 
make all colonial officers independent of their people. 

Tryon's instructions were in keeping with this, and he imme- 




POPPLE'S plan of new YORK CITY AND ITS ENVIRONS, 1733. 

diately informed the Assembly that he was to accept from them 
neither a salary nor presents. Colden was met by an address 
in September, 1764, when the Stamp Act was imminent, which 
clearly defined the sentiments of the Assembly on the subject. 



284 THE EMPIUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

" We hope/' they said, '' your Honour will join us in an endeavor 
to secure that ^Teat bad*>e of English liberty of being taxed 
only with our own consent, to which we conceive all His 
Majesty's subjects at home and abroad equally entitled." 

" The New York Assembly," remarks Ellis H. Koberts, sum- 
marizing their attitude at this growing critical period (and his 
words deserve^ to be read with earnest attention by every citizen 
of the State): ''The New York Assembly was systematic and 
vigorous in its discussion of the relations of the colony to Par- 
liament, and its petitions embody a complete and effective state- 
ment of the convictions and purposes which actuated the patriot 
leaders. Far l<^ss than justice has been done to their authors, 
and to the Assembly of New York, for their courage and fidelity, 
for their eloquence, for their Avoi'thy championship of a great 
cause. While Massachusetts and Virginia have coined for cur- 
rent use the speeches of their writers and orators, it is still neces- 
sary to dig out of the official records the text of these documents, 
in which New York advocated high principles in a grand way." 

This neglect on the part of the people of New York or of the 
nation, of these contributions of New York to patriotic sentiment 
or phraseology, as compared with ^Massachusetts and Virginia, 
is a complaint that can not be too widely circulated, so that it 
may bring about the remedy. But doubtless the change of atti- 
tude which came over theNew York Assembly at the last moment 
may have had something to do with the matter. 

For it has to be confessed that as the contest which it had 
initiated at the first, and maintained for so long, came to the 
point of straining the relations with England to such an extent 
that nothing could follow but an actual and violent separation, 
the Assembly of New York began to reflect more and more the 
element in the colony that hesitated to carry the assertion of 
rights to so radical and revolutionary an extreme. The later 
bodies contained many members decidedly royalist in tone, who 
were inclined to seek reconciliation of the breach the Assembly 
itself had been diligently making for two generations. 



THE EMPIKE STATE IN TllUEE CENTURIES. 



285 



The last Colonial Assembly was dissolved .sine die in April, 1775, 
siiiiultaneoiisly with the news from Lexington, and the Provin- 
cial Congress took its place a month later, called together by 
the iirgenc}^ created by the first battle of the Revolution. Tn 
June, 1775, after the battle of Bunker Hill, Governor Tryon r(^- 
turned from his leave of absence, and on the same day Wash- 
ington passed through New York City, on his way to take 
charge of the Continental Army. In October, fearing arrest, 
Tryon removed his family and goods to a frigate in the harbor, 
and thence conducted the government, such as he still had. He 
is supposed to have been implicated in the plot to poison Wash- 
ington. His incumbency was officially ended in 1780, Avhen 
James Robertson became military governor of the remnant of 
the province. 




DONUAN AKMS. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE BATTLEGROUND OF THE REVOLUTION. 




N language not quite so subdued, but much more ex- 
pressive in conveying the idea of our caption, the 
soldiers of England were wont to call New York 
"■ the cock-pit of America.'' It had proved a pretty 
constant fighting ground during the previous war; it was 
destined to be the center and aim of military plans and nmneu- 
vers throughout the lievolution. Although the battle began on 
Massachusetts soil, it was soon transferred to our own State, and 
that by deliberate purpose of the English government. In July, 
1775, when the news of Bunker Hill could hardly have reached 
them, the plan adopted was this: "To command the Hudson 
with a number of small men-of-war and cutters, and maintain 
a safe intercourse and correspondence between Quebec, Albany, 
and New York, and thus afford the finest opportunity to their 
soldiery, and the Canadians, in conjunction with the Indians, 
to make continual incursions into jNIassachusetts, and divide the 
provincial forces, so as to render it easy for the British army at 
Boston to break the spirits of the ^Massachusetts people, desolate 
their country, and compel an absolute subjection to Great Brit- 
ain." 

The battle of Lexington was not yet a month old, and it was 
more than a month before Bunker Hill's inspiriting experiences, 
when, on May 10, 1775, Colonel Ethan Allen and his Green Moun- 
tain boys took Ticonderoga. The credit of first turning the at- 
tention of the military authorities to the strongholds that had 



THE EAiriRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 287 

SO often been the bone of contention in the previous war, belongs 
to Benedict Arnold, who was destined to reap his chief fame 
and shame on the soil of New York. He was hastening thither 
Avith a colonel's commission, and only a handful of men, expect- 
ing the rest of his command to follow him, when he found that 
the same idea had occurred to Ethan Allen and the Vermonters, 
and being nearer thej were on the way to Lake Champlain in 
force. Tlie mountaineers would not let Arnold supersede Allen, 
so the former joined as a volunteer. 

Coming opposite the grim fortress, there were not found boats 
for more than eighty-three men to cross the lake. The enterprise 
brooked no delay, for surprise was their only hope, so, under 
cover of the night, on May 9, over these went on their reckless 
exploit. When dawn had scarce begun, on May 10, the little 
ariTLj marched stealthil3' upon the fort, whose occupants thought 
they were alone in the wilderness. A sentry was overpowered 
without noise, the snlly port was entered, and they deployed 
upon the parade within the walls ready for assault upon the foe 
there. But none were there. Allen then proceeded to the com- 
mandant's quarters who was half out of bed when the uncere- 
monious visitor rushed through the door. Allen demanded the 
surrender of Ticonderoga in due form. " By what authority?" 
was the astounded reply. " By the authority of the great Jeho- 
vah and the Continental Congress."" The sturdy patriot slightly 
mortgaged the future by this sally, for the Continental Congress 
had adjourned till May 13, but happened to meet on this very 
day, when it was a fev^' hours older. 

The surrender of Crown Point was a matter of course, after 
Ticonderoga had fallen, and it yielded two days later to Colonel 
Seth Warner and another detachment of Green Mountain boys. 
The exploits were of great value to the cause of the colonies, 
not only on account of the strategic situation of the forts, but 
they were stored with military supplies. No less than one hun- 
dred and twenty cannons were secured, many of which were 
made to do service in the siege of Boston, and were also used to 



288 THE EMPIRE STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 

equip the forts aloiiii the Hudson. Etliau Alleu was taken pris- 
oner (hiriuii the campaijin against Canada this same year. After 
some hard experiences suffered on board a transport to England, 
he was sent back again and kept on parole at one of the farm- 
houses in the town of New Lots ( Flatbush then ) on Long Island. 
Arnold, his companion in this undertaking, had a more brilliant 
career with a less honorable ending. 

The capture of Ticonderoga invited the attempt of the British 
to retake it, and Sir Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, was 
known to be taking steps to invade New York from the north for 
the purpose. Thus early in the history of the war Congress was 
compelled, in order to forestall these efforts, to listen to the sug- 
gestions of military men and authorize the invasion of Canada. 
Benedict Arnold was sent to carry out a plan of his own with 
one thousand men detached from Washington's army before 
Boston, whom he led on the famous march through the wilder- 
ness of Maine to the gates of (Quebec. There was also organized 
an expedition against Montreal, which was, of course, to follow 
the old familiar route along the two northern lakes. The com- 
mand would naturally have been given to Colonel Philip Schuy- 
ler, who had succeeded to all his father's virtues and abilities. 
But he was ill at this time, and so the leadership of the Montreal 
exp(Mlition devolved upon that other interesting and heroic char- 
acter, Colonel ( later General) Bichard ^Montgomery. 

When an oliKcer in the British army, on duty in America, he had 
fallen in love with one of the belles of New York, Miss Janet 
Livingston. He was ordered to England with his regiment, but 
returned to claim his bride, and he threw in his fortunes with the 
colonists when the break with the mother country occurred. A 
force of two thousand men was collected at Albany, the first four 
regiments raised in New Y^ork taking part in the enterprise. 
Before August, Montgomery was at Ticonderoga, and thence the 
final march was begun late in August, 1775. On September 12 
he was before St. Johns, a fortified place about midway between 
the northern extremity of Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



289 



at Montreal. Governor Carleton could muster only nine hundred 
men for its defense, and after a siege of about seven weeks it 
surrendered on November 3. 

Montreal could not hold out after St. Johns was taken, and on 
November 12 IMontgomer}- entered the city. On the very next 
day Arnold crossed the St. Lawrence and climbed to the Plains 
of Abraham with an exhausted army of only seven hundred men, 
three hundred less than when he started. Nevertheless, he de- 
manded the surrender of 
Quebec. On December 3 
Montgomery came up 
with five hundred men. 
Carleton was in command 
within the fortress, and 
he would neither sur- 
render nor try the fortune 
of a battle on the historic 
Plains. Therefore it was 
resolved to storm the 
works with the handful of 
twelve hundred men. 

It was a hazardous un- 
dertaking, but the very 
audacity of it nearly 
brought success. Mont- 
gomery with his men and 

Arnold at the head of his, made the attack simultaueousl}^ at op- 
posite sides of the town. The assault was begun at tAvo o'clock 
in the morning of December 31, 1775, in a blinding snow-storm. 
Arnold fell severely wounded in the leg early in the action. 
Colonel Morgan, of the Virginia contingent, took his place and 
led his men far into the city, which would have been taken if 
equal success had met the party on the opposite side of the works. 
Here INIontgomery was instantly killed, three bullets having 
struck him at once. The fall of their beloved general brought 




ANDREW HAMILTON. 



290 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

(Uscoiirageinent to the hearts of his men, and they hesitated to 
advaiic<% until the uarrison liad time to eolleet, and thev \V(M-e 
driven back. 

Ere the action ceased, Montgomery's body was carried to a 
phice of safety by one of liis aides, Aaron Burr, later so noted in 
the annals of the State and of the country. He was buried in 
the cemetery of the garrison after the Americans had retired, 
and liis remains tarried there in peace until 1818, when, at the 
instance of (roYernor DeWitt Clinton, the New York Legislature 
ordered the body of General ^Montgomery to be removed to New 
York City. The Continental Congress had voted that a beautiful 
cenotaith be erected to his memory in 1770, which was placed in 
the rear of St. Paul's Church, facing the sidewalk on Broadway, 
where throngs of busy men daily pass and repass. The honored 
ashes were transported in state down the Lakes Champlain and 
George, and the casket exposed to public view at Albany for 
some days. They arrived here on Saturday, July 4, 1818. On 
Wednesday they were placed on board the steamer '' Tiichmond." 

The general's widow was still living, and resided at a county 
seat near Bhinebeck. As the steamer arrived opposite the house 
it stopped, the band played a funeral march, and a salute was 
fired. ]Mrs. Montgomery wrote shortly after this occurrence to a 
relative: " However gratifying to my feelings, every pang I 
felt was renewed. The ]iomp with which the funeral was con- 
ducted add(Ml to my woe. When the steamboat passed with slow 
and sohMiui movement, stopping before my house, the troops 
under arms, the dead march from the muffled drums, the mourn- 
ful music, splendid coffin canopied with crape and crowned with 
plumes — you may conceive my anguish, I can not describe it." 
Their married life had continued but two years when ]Mont- 
gomery was killed, and it was now forty-two years since that 
fatal day. Yet "her soldier," as she always fondly called him, 
had never lost his place in her heart. She had requested to be 
left alone on the porch as the funeral cortege passed. 

The costly sacrifice producj^l no adequate results. Arnold 



THE EMPIRE STATE IX ■I'lIREE C1:NTURIES. 291 

remained near (Quebec thronoh the dreary winter, and was re- 
enfoiH-ed by ( leneral Snllivan in the spriuj^- of 1776. But Carleton 
n(>w had a force of thirteen tlionsand men, mostly Hessians. He 
reea])tured Montreal and drove the small army of the AmericanM 
back to their own provinces. The retreat was well condncted, 
bnt this conld not (dian^e its character, and in .Tnne, 177(5, Sulli- 
van was glad to quarter his exhausted troops at Crown Point, 
and th<' Canadian expedition was at an end. 

^leantime much had been going on in lower latitudes. The 
headquarters of the Continental army had been shifted from 
^Massachusetts to New York. Boston had been evacuated by the 
British in ^larch, 1770. Now the blow of the enemy was about 
to be directed fairly and squarely at the center, as laid down in 
their plan of 1775. Before this the ministry had but inten<led 
to ]ninish Boston or Massachusetts. They had begun to llnd 
out that they had on liand a biggei' task than that, namely, the 
subduing of a nation, which had just risen to the consciousness 
of being such. And the i»reparations now made were corre- 
spondingly vigorous. Instead of four regiments sent out with 
General Gage, there now was collected such an army as 
these shores had never seen. It was landed on Staten Island in 
July, 1776, ami was thirty-four thousand strong, on paper, with 
an actually available fighting strength of twenty-five thousand 
men at least. To this was joined a consi<lerable naval force of 
several first-class shii)s and innumerable lesser craft, against 
which the patriots had ]n'actically nothing to oppose. Evidently 
the king and ministry meant business. It was uoav or nev(n' Avith 
them. 

Easily conjecturing and anticipating this supreme effort and 
its direction, Washington concentrated his army at New York 
and betook himself there. As early as February, 1776. General 
Lee had been sent to fortify the city and to watch the enemy. 
In April he first sent General Putnam to take command, and 
then came himself. His task was not an easy one. New York 
was, without doubt, the object of the attack for which the enemy 



292 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

were tlieu preparing on so large a scale. But where, at its many 
vulnerable points, would tlie enemy come knocking for en- 
trance? With an illimitable navy that could not be met on its 
own element, the Englisli generals could select whatever point 
they pleased. And this being so, the line of defense was pretty 
extensive, and difficult to cover adequately, under any circum- 
stance. But these were against Washington on many other 
accounts than those mentioned. He had by no means a suffi- 
ciency of troops, and what he had was almost unmanageable. 
Twenty thousand would be an extravagant estimate, and cer- 
tainly of these there were thousands not to be counted on. En- 
listments were constantly expiring, and drilling or discipline was 
a thing their souls loathed. 

Governor Tryon was still on his floating castle, administering 
his province from a position as near his capital as he dared to 
get. It would have been better for his fame if he had kept 
clear from an attempt 1o rid England of her enemies by means 
of a low conspiracy. Mayor Matthews and other Tory chiefs 
were arrested, but evidence failed to implicate them sufficiently 
for punishment; and perhaps Tryon, too, was not as much to 
blame as the heated passions of that day liked to believe. But, 
at any rate, there was a plot to poison Washington. The great 
father of his country, says Lossing, had a weakness for green 
peas, and one of his life guard, an Irishman by the name of 
Hickey, had bribed a cook to put poison into this favorite dish. 
She warned the general and the Irishman was promptly and 
properly hanged on June 28, 177G, happily the single instance 
of any such baseness in the ranks of the American army through- 
out the entire war. But the fact that the hanging took place 
proved that the plot to poison or kill the American commander- 
in-chief was not a fairy tale, whoever was or was not responsible 
for it. 

The British king and ministry, as we said, had discovered they 
w^ere dealing with a nation. That nation wvas only just discover- 
ing this itself. For a year the contest had been going on, when, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



293 



in June, 1776, the idea 
of independence was 
clearly put into shape 
before its own eyes in 
the congress of its 
representatives, a n d 
expressed in language 
unmistakable to all 
the world on July 4. 
And now the conflict 
assumed an entirely 
different aspect. It 
did so from a civil 
standpoint not only, 
but it was peculiarly 
intelligible on mili- 
tary grounds. Wash- 
ington saw this with 
unerring good sense, 
and, therefore, Avhen 
copies of the Declara- 
tion of Independence 
reached him, he de- 
termined to have the 
document read to his 
troops. 

On July 9, 1776, they 
were marched to the 
"Fields," or Commons, 
now the City Hall 
Park, and about where 
the plaza in front of 
the City Hall is now, 
he had them formed 
into a hollow square. 




296 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

toward Jamaica, where there were no troops to guard nor even 
a patrol to give the alarm. At half-past eight this whole army 
stood in the rear of the American troops at the Bay Shore and 
Flatbush passes. 

What follows can be readily imagined. The signal guns an- 
nounced to Grant and the Hessian general that the time for a 
vigorous assault had come, and now there was no apathy in their 
movements. Our men at Flatbush were soon driven in, and the 
battle there became a rout, the troops, beset behind and before, 
rushing in great haste to the protection of the intrenchments. 
Lord Stirling was making a gallant stand against Grant's over- 
wlielming numbers, when Coruwallis, leaving the Flatbush 
melee on his left, marched straight to the rear of Stirling's posi- 
tion. 

This was now no longer tenable. Putnam had failed to wain 
Stirling in time of Cornwallis's approach, and his retreat was cut 
off. There was a desperate chance, however, of his getting to 
the lines, and into a redoubt near them, by sending his troops 
over a milldam and bridge on Gowanus Creek. But, alas! some 
of the men from the Flatbush Pass, in their eagerness to reach 
a place of safety, had burned the bridge after they had passed 
over it. The crossing of the creek would therefore require some 
time. Then, with splendid devotion, ordering the Pennsylva- 
nia, Delaware, and IMaryland regiments to ford their way to the 
lines, Stirling, with five com]xinies of Marylanders, turned about 
to face tlie surging mass of Cornwallis's division. Three times 
these gallant men drove back the enemy, Washington wringing 
his hands in agony as he saw such heroes sacrificed. But. finally, 
Stirling and the remnant of the Marylanders were forced to yield 
themselves prisoners. 

Thus was fought and lost the famous battle of Long Island. 
It might have gone harder with the patriot cause if General 
Howe had not been (juite so fond of his lunch. His men were 
ready to storm the American intrenchments, but he called them 
off, thinkink enough had been done for that day, and the hour 



THE EMriRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



297 



for lunch bad come. The cause of independence was further 
saved by Washington's force of will, and his prudence and skill, 
in conductino' the retreat of his whole army from Long Island 
back to Manhattan Island. There was nothing else to do. He 
had not more than seven thousand men to oppose to Howe's 
twenty thousand, and more on Staten Island to draw from, to 
say notliin«^ of the free range of both rivers for the navy. On 
the night of August 29 to 30 all of the American troops within 
earshot of the enemy were removed from the various parts of the 
defenses and the forts, marching in steady fashion to the river 
where Fulton Ferry is now, favored by the darkness during the 
night, and the friendly cover of a fog when night did not suffice 
to accomplish the feat. It ^ ^^ ^ _ ^ 

was a great surprise to 
Howe, and the salvation 
of the American army. 

Now there was an in- 
terval of inaction. Nearly 
all of the English forces 
were concentrated i n 
Queens County, in expec- 
tation of a descent of Gen- 
eral Lee from West- 

THE BEVERLY ROBINSON HOUSE, ERECTED IN 

Chester County or New 1750, on east bank of the hudson, nearly 
"^ TT 1 1 opposite west point. Arnold's headquarters 

LiUgland, across Heli while planning his treachery with ANDRE. 

Gate. But Lee did not 

come. On Staten Island, on September 11, Lord Howe, a friend 
to America, arranged a conference with Benjamin Franklin, 
John Adams, and Edward Rutledge, representing Congress, at 
the Billop House, still standing at Tottenville. He hoped 
terms could be agreed on to mutual satisfaction, and peace re- 
stored. But it was now^ too late. 

Four days after this laudable but abortive attempt, on Sep- 
tember 15, 1776, General Howe moved on to the investment of 
New York. Embarking his troops in barges lying in Newtown 




298 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Creek, while five frigates cannonaded tlie shore at Ki])'s Bar 
(near Easf Thirty-fourth Street), the word for advance was 
given, and no opposition was made to their landing, or their 
march to the city at the southern end of the island. As the Eng- 
lish marched in on the east side, (lenei'al Putnam marched out 
along the western edge, while Washington occupied the Heights 
west of Harlem. Here was fought an important battle on the 
next day, September 10, resulting in the repulse of the English 
forces engaged. These were not many, but it was the first 
instance of the i)ower of American soldiers to drive the Euro- 
peans from the field, and though it cost the lives of the two 
American commanders, Colonel KnoAvlton and Major Leitch, the 
event had an inspiring effect uiK)n the patriot army. A tablet, 
placed near 119th Street, on one of the Columbia University 
buildings, which occupy the site where the battle was fought, 
ai>proi)riately commemorates this first real victory of the Ameri- 
cans in a regular '' stand-up " fight with the British. But valor 
availed little with the odds so greatly against them in the early 
part of the struggle. 

In order to dislodge Washington from his advantageous posi- 
tion on the Heights in New York City now named after him, 
Cencral Howe resolve<l u]>on a wide detour to get into his rear. 
He landed in Westchester County on the east side of the Bronx 
Iviver; but Washington was waiting for him on the west side. 
As Howe moved northward, Washington moved in a parallel 
line; and Aaron Burr distinguished himself by leading a daring 
assault on a blockhouse near the present West Farms, built by 
Oliver De Lancey, brother of the lieutenant-governor, a rabid 
Tory; the garrison surrendering without a shot, as though they 
were paralyzed' by the audacity of the movement. 

Tlie parallel marches 1(m1 at last to a collision a score of miles 
farther u]), where was fought the battle of White Plains on 
October 28, 1770. It was again a victory for the Americans, for 
in the attack of Chatterton Hill Howe lost two hundred and 
thirty men against one hundred and forty of the Americans, and 



THK ILMPliiE STATE IX THUEE CENTUUIES. 299 

lie discreetly withdrew. Wasliiui;t(>ii fell baek a little further 
north, and at North Castle^ hehl a position so stronj;' that Uowe 
did not attempt to dislodi^e him at all, but went back to NeAv 
York. Washiuiiton had taken all his troops from Manhattan 
Island, except a garrison of nearly three thousand men at Fort 
AVashington. These were now besiej^ed, and after a brave de- 
fense surrendered on November IG, 1770. 

This ended the canijtaii'n for the ])ossession of New York City. 
From this date until the evacuation at the end of the war, on 
November 25, 1783, exactly seven years, the capital of the old 
])rovince of New York nMuained uuinterru])tedly and undisputed 
in the hands of the enemy. Here was set up a (iuasi-i>overnment 
for the province, with (leneral James Ifobertson as military 
governor in 17S0, but it was a mere fiction of a government, 
except for the three islands — ^lanhattan, Staten, and Long 
— which Avere subject to the enemy and where many Tories 
dwelt. The remainder of the province, however, was converted 
into a State in 1777, whereof more will appear in our next 
chapter. 

The year which saw the birth of indepen<lenc(^ was one of ap- 
parent disaster to its '-ause. New York (Mty was hopelessly lost. 
Tlu^re was only a remnant of an army Avith the commander-in- 
chief, and that had been unceremoniousily chased by a mere 
division of the British army, under Cornwallis, clear across and 
out of New Jersey into Tennsylvania. Uut late in 177() Wash- 
ington made a fierce effort to retrieve the situation. It was 
the casting of cA-ery hope upon a single chance. It Avas " con- 
quer or die" (the motto of his life guard) Avith liim. And he 
conquered at Tn^iton on December 25, 177(>; again at Princctou 
on January 3, 1777. Cornwallis had his first taste of the subtilty 
and promptness of his ()pi)onent, Avho got more than even with 
him in 1781 for the chase of 1770. 

For NeAv York the year 1777 is made memorable in KeA'ohi- 
tionary history by the celebrated cami)aign of Burgoyne, ending 
in the latter's surrender. Tlie plan of 1775, quoted nt the begin- 



300 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

uiug of this chapter, was still working- in the minds of the Brit- 
ish ministry, and was too good to give up, even though it now 
aimed at something more than punishing Massachusetts. The 
lower end of the line between Quebec and New York had been 
secured; the upper end was not for a moment in danger after 
the spring of 1776. The point yet to secure was that at the mid- 
dle — Albany. To this point it was planned to converge three 
expeditions. One was to go up the St. Lawrence, cross Lake 
Ontario, and then land at Oswego, the old familiar route of 
French and Indian incursions into the center of western New 
York. Thence the progress was to be along the Oswego into the 
interior, eastAvard to the headwaters of the Mohawk, reducing 
the forts there, and further along the Mohawk River to Albany. 
The second and main expedition was to follow that other familiar 
route of French incursion : the St. Lawrence, the St. John, Lakes 
Champlain and George, the upper Hudson, and so to Albany. 
The third number in this excellent programme was for Sir Will- 
iam Howe to execute, by coming up from his secure post at New 
York along the broad bosom of the Hudson to that same objec- 
tive point, the quaint old town of Albany. 

The master spirit Avho was to direct this splendid enterprise 
was carefully selected. General John Burgoyne was of humble 
birth, but a man of many brilliant parts. He was a poet and 
dramatist of some success, and as a member of Parliament he 
had gained distinction as a speaker of considerable oratorical 
power. Creasy, in his " Fifteen Decisive Battles," says of him 
that " he had gained celebrity by some bold and dashing ex- 
ploits in Portugal during the last war [Seven Years' War] ; he 
was personall}^ as brave an officer as ever headed British troops; 
lie had considerable skill as a tactician, and his general intel- 
lectual abilities and acquirements were of a high order." He 
had been with Howe at Boston and had witnessed the battle of 
Bunker Hill. In 1776 he had gone to England, and in personal 
conferences with the king this campaign was discussed in all its 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



301 



details. He returned to Quebec with the commission to conduct 
it with all the troops Carleton could spare. 

The British ministry did not think a large army was neces- 
sary for the undertaking, as they relied upon the rising of the 
people well affected to the mother country in northern New 
York and Vermont, and especially in the Mohawk Valley, where 
the Johnson influence was supreme. Burgoyne started on his 
way to Albany with about seven thousand men of the regular 
army, a force of five hundred artillery, about one hundred 
and fifty Canadians, armed with axes and other tools, needed for 
making progress through the forest, and an uncertain and fluc- 
tuating number of Indians; for good King George had deter- 




THE VAN COKTLANDT MANSION, KINGSBRIDGE, 

mined to let loose the red devils on his rebellious provincials, 
against the protest of many of his own ofiflcers. 

Burgoyne took the field on June 1, 1777, and on June IG he had 
reached Crown Point. The Americans had made no attempt to 
hold this, but at Ticonderoga was General St. Clair with about 
three thousand men. The position was deemed impregnable; 
but there was a crag six hundred feet high overlooking it which 
was supposed inaccessible to men or cannon. When, therefore, 
on July 5, it was found that the impossible had been done, and a 
battery of good-sized guns was looking down on them, the garri- 
son at Ticonderoga resolved to leave. At night the lake was 



302 THK EMPIUK STATE IX THREE CENTURIES. 

safely crossed by nearly all the troops, when a house canojit 
fire and showed the last of the rear «>nard vanishing- in the forest. 
The fortress was occupied and a detachment under General 
l-'raser sent in pursuit of the Americans. He fell upon the real- 
liuard and was nearly defeated, when he was re-enforced by an- 
other detachment. Nevertheless, the lari>,er part of St. Clair's 
ami}' succeeded in reaching Fort Edward on the left or east bank 
of the Hudson. Here Schuyler awaited him. 

Tills general had done all that skill and energy could do to 
block the enemy's advance, without men to man forts or ammuni- 
tion to make forts useful. He caused trees to be felled across 
roads and streams, interfering with his progress, and more than 
fcn-ty bridges were destroyed, so that Burgoyne's utmost efforts 
could give his army a speed of only a mile a day. Fort George 
.nnd I'\)rt Anne were no obstacle to his advance, and on July 30, 
1777, he was at Fort Edward, whence Schuyler had retired, 
awaiting the foe on the right or west bank of the Hudson. 

Here Burgoyne issued a proclamation which was intended to 
rally the royalists around him. Schuyler issued a counter procla- 
mation, and there was no rallying. Yet the situation seemed a 
very serious one. The enemy was perilously near Albany, and 
the Hudson was already reached. '' It is not to be wondered at," 
wrote Edmund Burk(\ " if b(»th officers and private men were 
highly elat(Ml with their good fortune, and deemed that and 
their prowess to be irresistible; if they regarded their enemy with 
the greatest contempt; considered their own toils to be nearly 
at an end; Albany to be already in their liands; and the reduc- 
tion of the northern provinces to be rather a matter of some 
time than an arduous task full of diflficulty and danger." But 
the " rapid torrent of success," as Burke called their experiences 
thus far, was coming to a sudden stoppage, and the " best laid 
plans " were about to go sadly '^ aglee." 

On the Oswego and ^Nfohawk branch of this combination was 
sent General St. Leger, with only seven hundred rangers. But 
there were the Indians to be drawn on (id Vihihoii, and the pow- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CEXTI'RIES. 303 

(M'fiil interest of the sons of l?4ir William Johnson. The latter had 
(lied in 1774, and Sir John Johnson was now the baronet, who, 
with Guy Johnson, his brother-indaw, had creat influence with 
the Iroquois of the Mohawk Valley and beyond. These men ehose 
the side of Enoland, as they had a ri«;ht to do, but they inflamed 
the Indians against the patriots and scrupled not to incite them 
to deeds of violence throuiiliout this whole war. Sir John had 
been appointed general of the militia of Tryon County, of which 
Johnstown was the seat. Guy Johnson had succeeded his fatlun-- 
indaw as Suj)('rint(Mident of Indian Affairs; he i-esided near llic 
present city of Amsterdam, and councils of Indians frequently 
met there. lie could turn them to suit his own purposes with 
perfect ease, and therefor<' was considered dangerous to the 
cause of freedom. He fled from arrest to the western tribes in 
May, 1775. Ab<mt the same time Scdiuyler compelled Sir John 
to disarm his Tory followers, and received his parole to remain 
(piiet. This he broke and fled to Canada. It was thought that 
the i)resence of these Johnsons in the army of St. Leger would 
surely arouse all the Tory element to su])i)ort his expedition. 

In the ])atli of invasion from this dinMtion stood the solitary 
Fort Schuyler. ^Nluch confusion has been caused by this name 
as to its precise location. As was shown in the previous (diapter. 
General Stanwix built a fort of his name on the site of the 
present Kome. About the same time, or somewhat later. Fort 
Scliuylei* was erected on the site of the present I^tica. Roth 
forts liad fallen into such decay that they were useless for de- 
fense. Rut in the spring of 177(> the old Fort Stanwix was put 
into a defensible coiiilition by order of General Schuyler, whom 
Washington had appointed commander of the Northern Depart- 
ment, or New ^'ork, in 1775. The renovated fort was therefore 
named Fort S(diuyler after him, and the fort of the same name 
! at ITfica was not used during this war at all. Thus the Fort 
' Schuyler we are dealing with in this campaign must be undc^r- 
stood as being on the site of Kome. In April, 1777, Colonel Ganse- 
voort was ordered to occupy Fort Schuyler with the Third IJegi- 



304 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

ment of New York troops, and the fortifications had not all been 
put into proper shape when St. Leger invested it. 

The militia of Tryon County were called out to resist the ad- 
vance of the British and relieve the garrison at this distant 
outpost. Those that responded were chiefly Palatines. These 
people were nearly all stanch friends of liberty. At a meeting 
called in that district on August 27, 1774, they came out strongly 
in favor of resistance to the oppressive measures of the mother 
country in a series of resolutions. Eight hundred men now col- 
lected under the leadership of one of their own number. Genera' 
Nicolaus Hercheimer, or Herkimer, and marched sturdily west- 
ward to stay the progress of St. Leger. The latter had now an 
army of seventeen hundred men, counting the Tories and Indians, 
and on August 3, 1777, he arrived before Fort Schuyler. He 
demanded its surrender, which Gansevoort declined, and on 
August 5 he flung to the breeze, on a standard captured from the 
enemy, a flag intended for the stars and strii^es. It was made of 
a white shirt and bits of red cloth from the petticoat of a soldier's 
wife. The flag had been ofiicially adopted on June 14, previous, 
but a supply of good bunting could hardly have reached Ganse- 
voort in time. The shirt and petticoat did well enough, and led 
on to glorious and much needed victory. 

This was snatched, however, from the very jaws of disaster 
and approxiniate defeat. Colonel Gansevoort was a most effect- 
ive and vigilant offlcer, and notified the approaching army under 
Herkimer that they must be on their guard against ambuscade. 
They must not enter a certain defile until they heard two signal 
guns from the fort, which was to notify them that a sally had 
been made to divert attention from their approach, and enable 
them to cut their way through the enemy. All these precautions 
and devices were lost upon Herkimer's host of plain farmers. 
They knew of no inequalities of rank at the town meeting, and 
would tolerate no superior airs and dictation from officers as 
soldiers. They quarreled and disputed, and when Herkimer 
hesitated to advance until he heard the signal guns, they goaded 



THE EMPIUE STATE IxN THllEE CENTURIES. 305 

the irascible hero to madness by insinuatiog that his caution 
was cowardice. 

Tlius the}^ were in fine condition to walk into the trap St. Leger 
had prepared for them. He sent forward Colonel John Butler, 
a friend and neiglibor of Sir William Johnson, and Joseph Brant, 
a Mohawk Indian, whose sister Molly had been Sir William's 



MffUyv a^<yri rrtA'CS' ra,2^i*,<- 
THE SIR DANVERS OSBOKN LETTER. 



" acting " wife for several years. These men were to intercept 
Herkimer with a party of Tories and Indians familiar with the 
country, and prepare an ambuscade. About five miles east of 
the fort, or about half way between Rome and TTtica, there was 
a deep ravine running in a general northerly and southerly 
direction, with a semicircle trending eastward. The bottom was 
marshy, with a causeway leading through it, and the ground 
encircled by the sweep of the valley was liigh and level. In the 



306 THE EMPIUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

woods covering" this elevation the Tories and Indians lay in 
ambush, waiting for the unsuspecting, although forewarned, 
patriot troops. 

About ten o'clock in the forenoon of August 6, 1777, Herki- 
mer's army entered this defile, and when they were well within 
the trap the enemy SAVooped down upon them from their hiding 
places. The advance guard, consisting of two-thirds of tht- 
troops, were at once cut off from their supply wagons and the 
one regimeut in the rear. The latter fled, which was unfortunate, 
for if they had forced their way to the front and joined their com- 
rades they would have found victory waiting on their effort. 
For, though hard beset by a foe at first invisible, and, therefore, 
unassailable, and upon the point of giving way to panic, when 
the enemy made their appearance all thought of flight or sur- 
render vanished. Most of the Tories were of the company called 
Johnson's Greens, a particularly virulent specimen of loyalists, 
who had often harassed their German neighbors who remained 
true lo their liberties, beyond endurance. 

The sight of their persecutors aroused the Palatine militia to 
an ungovernable fury, which put out of their heads all thought 
of quarter, either for themselves or their enemies, and they 
hurled themselves upon Greens and Indians alike in a frenzy of 
rage which nothing could resist. Amid the carnage, Herkimer, 
whose horse had been killed and leg shattered, sat upon his 
saddle, propped against a tree, and shouted his orders in broken 
English or full-fledged German, till victory w^as assured. Thus 
was fought the battle of Oriskany, a most vital element in the 
scheme of resistance to Burgoyne's invasion. A sally from the 
fort completed the discomfiture of St. Leger, who retired soon 
after upon the report that Arnold was coming with a force 
whose size was industriously exaggerated by friendly Indians. 
Thus the western avenue selected by the British ministry for 
their army on its way to Albany proved impracticable, and Bur- 
goyne was destined to go without the support to come thence. 

Equally disappointing was the support and co-operation to be 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 307 

accorded him from the lower end of the Hudson, In a general 
wi\\ Sir William Howe knew that he was expected to go up the 
river in force and sustain the movement along the upper Hud- 
son toward Albany. But the specific orders, leaving him no dis- 
cretion, failed to reach him because they were inadvertently 
pigeon-holed. He used his discretion by proceeding to take Phil- 
adelphia. He did take it, but when Franklin heard of it he saw 
that it was much rather a case of Philadelphia taking Howe. 
It was a useless accession for strategic purposes, and it was the 
death blow to Burgoyne's campaign. Professor Fiske does not 
hesitate to say that " Burgoyne's fate was practically decided 
when Howe arrived at Elkton." 

The blunder was at once seen and keenly appreciated by the 
lynx-eyed Washington. He gave Howe battle at Brandywine 
on September 11, and again at Germantown on October 4, and 
the patriots were defeated each time. But Howe was detained 
and lured by this strenuous opposition into thinking his exploit 
of great importance. And so it was for the northern campaign, 
which was made the occasion for slights and abuses of Wash- 
ington, before and after, but the success of which was in no 
small measure due to the commander-in-chief. Yet Howe had 
not quite forgotten Burgoyne. Taking eighteen thousand men 
to Philadelphia he left seven thousand with Clinton at New 
York, with orders to take a part of these and go up to the relief, 
or rather support, of Burgoyne. Clinton was in no hurry; he 
wanted a little stronger force at New York before he started, 
and waited until the arrival of three thousand soldiers from 
England in September. Then, on the 29th, when Burgoyne had 
experienced his first defeat, he began his progress up the Hudson. 

This could not be conducted with any great rapidity, for the 
patriots had taken good care to make the passage of the river 
as difficult as possible. In meeting the British plan of 1775, the 
authorities of New York had ordered that " a i)ost be taken in the 
Highlands on each side of the Hudson's Biver, and batteries be 
erected, and that experienced persons be immediately sent to 



308 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES, 

examine siiid river in order to discover wliere it would be most 
advisable and proper to obstruct the navigation." 

In pursuance of this order, Fort Montgomery was erected 
above Stony Point, about opposite Anthony's Nose, just at the 
entrance of the Highlands. From the foot of the rock}^ promon- 
tory on which it stood, a chain eighteen hundred feet long was 
stretched to the base of Anthony's Nose, part of which had been 
brought down from Ticonderoga, where it had served to obstruct 
the entrance to the Sorrel Kiver; what it had lacked in length 
to span the broader Hudson had been manufactured at Pough- 
keej)sie, where industry had already taken its seat in the shape 
of forges and iron AV(.rks. A boom of logs swung in front of the 
chain, and batteries on the shores guarded the approach to it. 
Those who are familiar with West Point will know where Fort 
Clinton was erected. 

I'roia Plum Point to Pollapel or Pollepel Island (so named 
because it resembles the upturned bowl of a ladle, which the 
Dutch call a pollepel), a cheveaux-de-frise was constructed. To 
]nake attacks on these obstructions at both gates of the High- 
lands the more dangerous, fire ships were made of rafts loaded 
witli liighly inflammable material, ready to float down in masses 
of flame against any intruder. The forts were begun in the 
autumn of 1775, and, with the various concomitant obstructing 
devices, finished in the summer of 1770. During that of 1777, 
with the Biirgoyne campaign and its tliree divisions threatening 
from all sides, two additional forts were built: Fort Independ- 
ence, at Peekskill, and Fort Constitution (in honor of the State 
Constitution just adopted), on Constitution Island. On the east 
Ceneral Putnam commanded with a force of four thousand men 
undci- him. On the west were Generals George and James Clin- 
tou, the former governor of the State, with an altogether inade- 
quate force of militia. 

freneral Sir Henry Clinton had no difficulty in foiling or fool- 
ing dear old General Putnam, so splendidly brave but so con- 
spicuously unmilitary from a professional standpoint. It was he 



THE EMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



309 



who had left the Jamaica Pass unguarded at the battle of Long 
Island; and Sir Henry easily misled him by a feigned attack on 
Peekskill. While busy meeting this attack that did not come, 
Putnam let the British slip over to the other side and land un- 
molested at Ston}^ Point. They did not propose to waste time on 
the chain, but marched around the westc'rn base of Dunderberg 
Mountain. On October 7 Sir Henry was before Fort Mont- 
gomery. The raw militia of the neighborhood, numbering only 
six hundred men, had been hastily tlirown into the fort, and 
fought against the superior force of the enemy from morning till 
twilight, when they retreated to Fort 
riinton, leaving half their number be- 
hind in dead, Avouuded, and prisoners. 

The upper fort could not hold out 
after the former was taken, and thus 
the enemy was master of the situation 
in the Highlands, on the west side, 
where Putnam, with his four thou- 
sand, does not seem to have come over 
to disturb their peace. Meanwhile the 
enemy's ships had also passed the for- 
midable chain. Fire ships had blazed, 
and cannons exploded, and maga- 
zine had blown up; but when all this 
hubbub had ceased making its fine re- 
verberations among the mountains, 
there was nothing nor anybody left to prevent the English from 
quietly loosening the chain and boom. On the morning follow- 
ing, October 8, 1777, the fleet of the enemy passed up the river, 
pouring shot and slndl into every farmhouse they could descry 
amid the woodlands of the valleys, or clinging to the sides of the 
hills. 

Sir Henry Clinton remained at Fort ^lontgomery, and as the 
way w^as now open to Albany, sent General Vaughan with sev- 
eral frigates and the larger portion of his troops to meet Bur- 




SIK DANVLF.G OSBORN. 



310 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

sovne there. In airy style be wrote to the latter : " Nous y void, 
and nothing between me and Gates. I sincerely hope this little 
success of ours will facilitate your operations." This dispatch 
was dated October 8, at Fort Montgomery. On October 7 Bur- 
goyne had been beaten for the second and last time, so that the 
success of Clinton a hundred miles down the river did not facili- 
tate anything except his surrender. But Burgoyne never had a 
chance to consider the '' little success " as an element in the game 
he was playing at all. The dispatch was rolled up into a silver 
bullet and given to a courier. He was caught at Kingston, seen 
to swallow something, given an emetic, yielded up bullet and 
dispatch, and was hanged as a spy for his pains. 

General Yaughan accomplished nothing, of course, in aid of 
Burgoyne. But he vented his spite upon Kingston on his way up. 
The enemy could not resist stopping to burn and desolate the 
place where the birth of the State had just been [jroclaimed, 
where its constitution had been read in the hearing of the people, 
and which was the capital of the new and hopeful common- 
wealth. Kingston was a pretty village with some substantial 
houses, and fortunately the " Senate House," built of solid stone, 
did not succumb to the flames, but stands to-day a monument 
to these struggling beginnings. But we must defer this part of 
our narrative to the next chapter. We dwell now only on the 
sad fate that befell Kingston, because of this connection with 
State history. Cooper, who, in Lionel Lincoln, has given us 
what has been called the best description of the battle of Bunker 
Hill, has put into the mouth of Leatherstocking in the Pioneers 
a vivid account, as by an eyewitness, of the burning of the village 
under its ancient name of Sopus, or Esopus : 

" There's a place in them hills that I used to climb when I 
wanted to see the carryings on of the world, that would well pay 
any man for a barked shin or a torn moccasin. . . . The place I 
mean is next to the river, where one of the ridges juts out a little 
from the rest, and where the rocks fall for the best part of a 
thousand feet. ... I was on that hill when Vaughan 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 311 

burned 'Sopus in the last war; and I saw the vessels come out of 
the Highlands as plain as I can see that limescow rowing into 
the Susquehanna, though one was twenty times further from 
me than the other. The river was in sight for seventy miles, 
looking like a curled shaving under my feet, though it was eight 
long miles to its banks. ... As for 'Sopus, the day the 
roj-al troops burned the town the smoke seemed so nigh that 1 
thought I could hear the screeches of the women." 

So there was nobody to wait for Burgoyne's coming at Albany 
but the despised American army with its ridiculously unscientific 
way of dressing and doing things. As we saw, he had reached 
Fort Edward on July 30, 1777. Almost immediately after oc- 
curred the tragedy of which Miss Jane McCrae was the victim. 
Taken by Indians of the British side, and slain by American 
bullets in the attempt to recover her from her captors, who there- 
upon scalped her, a story of blood and cruelty much more wanton 
was made out of it at the time, greatly to the disadvantage of 
the British hosts, and securing hundreds of young men burning 
with indignation as recruits for the American cause. Schuyler 
established a camp at Stillwater, on the west bank of the 
Hudson some miles below Fort Edward, for the reception of 
these and other recruits that ^^ ere flocking to him from all sides; 
and while he could do no fighting, his energetic measures cut off 
supplies of food almost completely' from the enemy. 

Burgoyne heard of a large quantity of stcu'es and provisions 
at Bennington, Yt., and he sent a party of Germans, Cana- 
dians, and Tories under Colonel Baum to capture them. It was 
here, on August IS, 1777, that Burgoyne's " torrent of success '' 
met with its first interruption. General John Starke and the 
Green Mountain Boys met Baum, and Molly Starke did not be- 
come a widow nor did the British get the stores. Away down at 
New Lots, Long Island, in the Rapalje farmhouse, still standing 
on the Xew Lots Road, Brooklyn, Colonel Ethan Allen heard the 
news of the victory of his Green Mountain Boys, and was ar- 
rested for shoutinit himself hoarse and swiniiing his hat on the 



312 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

top of the Howard House Tavern (which stood till 1885), near the 
Jamaica Pass. 

It was a o-rim experience for Burgoj^ne, however, with no food 
brought back and seven hundred prisoners left behind. It also 
neutralized his proclamations, and sent more men to Schuyler's 
camp. And by this time tlie news of Oriskany and Fort Schuyler 
had reached him, rendering matters still more dubious. He could 
not retreat, he could not starve, and fighting was not nearly so 
sure of ending as he wanted it, as before. Yet fight he must. 
Schuyler was ready for him now. It was he who had drawn the 
meshes of this desperate situation around the British general 
and the formidable army that might so easily have ruined the 
cause of America. By iiis foresight and promptness St. Leger's 
campaign had been eliminated as an auxiliary- Confidence in 
him had drawn the wavering provincials from throwing in their 
aid and support with the enemy, and had brought them in ade- 
quate numbers to his standard. 

All had been done to insure victory and glory in the fight that 
was imminent — when, by a piece of mere political intrigue, or 
" pull," even then — the meanest creature by all odds that the 
exigencies of the Eevolutionary War brought forward into public 
gaze, was appointed by Congress to supersede General Schuyler, 
and reap the harvest of success that was just ripening for the 
better man. This was Horatio Gates, whom we shall just men- 
tion here for accuracy's sake, but whose part in the subsequent 
proceedings, though he was commander-in-chief, was such that 
nothing is lost by not mentioning him again, which is a relief 
to the spirit. General Schuyler was so great a man that he 
went on as if nothing had happened, giving the creature who had 
come up to the northern army the fullest benefit of his advice 
and his dispositions. 

The two battles of Saratoga decided the fate of the expedition 
that had made such a stir in two worlds, the old and the new. 
The first was fought near Bemis Heights, a hill two miles above 
Stillwater, upon which the Americans had posted themselves 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



313 



advantageously, with their right wing resting upon the Hudson 
Eiver, flowing placidly along, as the name of the place indicates. 
General Arnold commanded the left wing, where the British 
right opposed him under General Eraser. Here the battle began, 
each general trying to turn the other's flank. Arnold's men 
followed their impetuous leader with such effect that Eraser's 
line, although re-enforced from the center, began to waver. 
Arnold was in urgent need of re-enforcements and begged for 
them, but they were denied him, nevertheless victory seemed 
about to crown his efforts when the enemy's right, under Gen- 
erals Philips and Riedesel, of the Germans, came to the rescue. 
There was then a 
lull in the battle 
for some time. 

Burgoyne or- 
dered a cannon- 
ade against the if. 
whole American 
line, to which no 
response was 
made. Next he 
ordered his men 
to dislodge the Americans by a bayonet charge. Again no re- 
sponse was apparent until the American works were almost 
reached, when there was a repetition of Bunker Hill, with an 
additional spring of the musketeers, like tigers, upon the ad- 
vancing foe. For three hours more the battle raged, and still the 
result was uncertain. It was now that Arnold, having again 
been refused re-enforcements, dashed in alone among his men, 
a host in himself, followed by an aid from headquarters (where 
no bullets whizzed) trying to stop him. The day was saved, 
but no victory won; both sides resting on their arms during the 
night. But the effect of the battle was equivalent to a defeat for 
Burgoyne, who could not afford to go on with drawn battles 
indefinitely as the Americans on their own ground might. There 







COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 1758. 



314 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

was no retreat for him to Canada, for General Lincoln, of Massa- 
chusetts, with two thousand New England men, had captured 
Ticonderoga, seized the battery on Mount Defiance, and de- 
stroyed hundreds of boats and vessels on Lake Champlain. 

The first battle of Saratoga, or Stillwater, had been fought on 
September 19, 1777. There was an interval of onl}^ a few weeks, 
during which Burgoyne's case did not improve. He received 
word from Clinton that he had started from New York, but the 
news that Howe had gained a victory at Brandywine must have 
caused rather mixed feelings of surprise and alarm. He lia<l 
better have been on the Hudson than on the Schuylkill; but 
Washington took good care he should not get back. 

It is pleasant to read in an autograph letter, possessed by a 
gentleman in New York City, that while the two armies were 
having each other by the throat in a life and death struggle, 
which meant life or death also to a nation, the horrors of warfare 
even then could be mitigated by the courtesies of intercourse 
and the consideration due to human suffering. This letter was 
addressed by Burgoyne to Gates, is dated " Camp on Behmes's 
heights," 27th September, 1777, and reads as follow^s : 

" Sir: According to your desire I send a list of the prisoner's 
taken the 19th Instant, as likewise of those taken some days 
before and since that period. I understand that the discourse 
which passed between Doctor Potts and Doctor Wood respected 
a mutual leeve [sic] for a surgeon or physician to visit the 
wounded prisoners after an action. I have not the least objec- 
tion to that idea : and if you have an inclination. Sir, upon the 
present occasion to send Doctor Potts or any other medical gen- 
tleman to my camp he shall meet with due worship. I am obliged 
to you for your attention in sending both the servant and the 
servant's wife, and am, Sir, Your Obedient Humble Servant, J. 
Burgoyne. P. S. — Busyniss [sic] prevented my answering your 
letter sooner, which you will excuse." 

Evidently Bemis's Heights covered more territory than the 
one hill the Americans had occupied during the first battle. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 315 

for Burgoyne could not have written a letter from a camp on 
that particular hill. He had not dislodged the Americans from 
their position, and the second battle of Saratoga, or Stillwater, 
was fought on October 7 on precisely the same ground. The 
tactics and conduct of it were also much the same. It began 
with an attempt on the American left, and Fraser again was the 
leading spirit among the British. General Arnold, goaded to 
exasperation during, and, still more, after the former battle by 
the unspeakable incubus who was supposed to have at heart 
the success of the American arms, was now without a command. 
But at a critical moment Arnold rode into the thickest of the 
fire and turned the tide of battle. Fraser fell mortally wounded, 
and Arnold's left leg, the same that had been wounded at (Quebec, 
was shattered by a bullet, and his horse killed under him. But 
it was in the moment of victory that Arnold fell, and it would 
have been better for him if he had there and then met the 
glorious fate of Fraser. The second battle of Saratoga left no 
doubt in Burgoyne's mind that he had been defeated. 

There was now a force of twenty thousand Americans pressing 
upon the remnant of Burgoyne's great army on all sides. When 
he retreated to the place where he had crossed the Hudson on the 
way to battle, three thousand Americans and several batteries 
occupied the hills on the other side. Holding his way to the 
ford at Fort Edward, it was found the Americans held a strong 
position just above, between that and Fort George. Just a week 
after the last battle, Burgoyne sent a flag of truce to the Ameri- 
can headquarters, inquiring what terms of surrender could be 
granted. Unconditional surrender was asked for, but there was 
spirit enough left among the Britons to repudiate such a humilia- 
tion as that. 

Three days later, on October 17, terms were agreed on, and 
Clinton's work at Forts Montgomery and Clinton did "facilitate" 
something: the granting of easier terms than might otherwise 
have been exacted. The British army was to march out of camp 
with the honors of war, and deposit their arms. Then they 



316 THE EMriKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

were to march through Massachusetts to Boston, and sail for 
Europe, never to serve again in America during this war. This 
last they never did again, but they were not sent to Europe. 
Some dilemma occurred, which Professor Fiske does not hesi- 
tate to ascribe to the bad faith of Congress. Eventually the men 
were settled in a sort of colony in Virginia, and even after the 
war many preferred to trj^ their fortunes in the new country. 

Thus came to an end the most formidable threat to the cause of 
independence; and out of it came its greatest help, for the sur- 
render of Burgoyne brought hesitating France to a decision, 
and her armies and fleets were soon sent over to fight the battles 
of freedom together, directly for us, indirectly for themselves. 
But we turn for a last look to incidents that grew out of the 
momentous event, which reflect credit upon a man of New York, 
and give us a glimpse of conditions of life among her people. 
The wife of one of the Hessian generals engaged in this cam- 
paign. Baroness Riedesel, left on record memoirs of the events 
she passed through. She had received no pleasant accounts of 
the Americans, and it was with serious aj^prehension she and 
her three children proceeded toward the American camp. 

" As 1 approached the tents," she wrote, " a noble-looking 
gentleman came toward me and took the children out of the 
wagon, embraced and kissed them, and then, with tears in his 
eyes, helped me also to alight. Presently he said, ' It may be 
embarrassing to you to dine with so many gentlemen. If you 
will come with your children to my tent, I will give you a frugal 
meal, but one that will at least be seasoned with good wishes.' 
' Oh, sir,' I cried, * you must surely be a husband and a father, 
since you show me so much kindness.' I then learned that he 
was General Schuyler." The baroness Avas also the guest of the 
Schuylers at Albany. As they entered the noble mansion, one 
of the little girls called out: "Oh, mamma, is this the palace 
that papa was to get when he came to America? " It was slightly 
embarrassing to have this frank avowal made of a hope, which, 
no doubt, had often been expressed in the child's hearing, and 



THE EMl'lUE STATE IN THREE CENTUlllES. 



317 



whic-li iiulieated how sauguiue the members of the expedition 
were of success and reward. 

One more incident we can not afford to omit, since even Pro- 
fessor Fiske malvcs mention of it in a history meant not for New 
Yorkers only, but Americans in general. Burgoyne, in with- 
drawing from the second battle, had burned General Schuyler's 
handsome country-seat, with numerous barns and granaries. 
After the surrender he went to England, and re-entered Parlia- 
ment, where he exhibited the unusual spectacle of always ad- 




os wego IN 1760. 



vocating the cause of America. A few months after his return 
he spoke before Parliament as follows : 

" I expressed to General Schuyler my regret at the event which 
had happened, and the reasons which had occasicmed it. He 
desired me to think no more of it, saying that the occasion justi- 
fied it, according to the rules of war. . . . He did more : he 
sent an aid-de-camp to conduct me to Albany, in order, as he 
expressed it, to procure me better quarters than a stranger 
might be able to find. This gentleman conducted me to a very 
elegant house, and to my great surprise presented me to Mrs. 



318 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Sfhiiyler and her family; and in this oc^ueral's house I remained 
during my whole stay at Albany, with a table of more than 
twenty covers for me and my friends, and every other possible 
demonstration of hospitality." How delightful it is to contem- 
plate this grandeur of soul by the side of that creeping creature 
who reaped out of this event all this man's deserved glory, and 
then used this false fame to undermine and supersede the com- 
mander-in-chief, who towered above him in every moral, manly, 
and military quality, like Teneriff above a mole-hill! 

It is a pity that the traditions of friendship and influence with 
the Indians passed from the Schuyler family to the Johnsons. 
For even the tribes of the Iroquois League, adhering naturally 
enough to the English government, wherewith they had been 
making treaties incessantly since ir>64, as a result of the same 
process with the Dutch since IGIT, were now let loose in furious 
rage against the Americans. Unfortunately their country was a 
vital and extensive portion of New York State. In the summer 
of 1778 the patriots were horrified by " the massacre of Wyom- 
ing," in the valley of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, not far 
from the borders of New York. Upon a settlement of harmless 
sympathizers with the cause of liberty here, fell a partj^ of 
Mohawk Valley Tories and Indians, led by Colonel Butler, of 
Oriskany fame. The prisoners were burned at the stake and 
otherwise tortured to death. It was generally supposed that 
Joseph Brant, the Indian who was with Butler at Oriskany, also 
took part in this outrage. It seems he was not here. But he 
made up for the omission by sharing in an equally dastardly 
deed in November of the same year at Cherry Valley, and this 
place of doom was within the borders of New York, and concerns 
us on many accounts. 

Cherry Valley was situated in what was then called the Cana- 
joharie District of Montgomery County, when Tryon County 
was given this more patriotic name, and was divided into its 
five great districts. It lies about ten miles back from the 
Mohawk River, going in a southeasterly direction from either 




1 — PaLnteA ty E R, Spencer 



-Tn? V ABHttrand- 



cffiyEffiES lEHWir 1L7L..B- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THUEE CENTUKIES. 319 

Cauajoliarie or Fort Plaiu. The familiar resorts of Richfield 
Springs and Sharon Springs are about due west and east of it, 
respectively, and Otsego Lake's northern extremity is about eight 
miles to the west of it. 

The valley is about sixteen miles long, and from one-quarter 
of a mile to one mile wide. The spot where the present village 
is located is about one thousand three hundred and thirty-five 
feet above the ocean level. The hills to the east are a spur of the 
Catskills, and tliree miles from the village rises Mount Inde- 
pendence to a height of one thousand seven hundred feet above 
the Mohawk, and two thousand feet above the ocean, thus tow- 
ering nearly seven hundred feet above the village. The prospect 
from this elevation embraces a range of one hundred miles; the 
Green Mountains are seen in the blue distance, and all of north- 
ern New York and the Mohawk Valley. In 1738 a patent for 
eight thousand acres situated in this valley was given by Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Clarke to a Mr. Lindesay, of New York. He had 
the patent surveyed in 1739, and in 1740 Mr. Lindesay took his 
family into the wilderness. 

He induced the Rev. Mr. Dunlop to go with him and look at the 
region, and the latter agreed to go to Scotland and persuade a 
number of families to settle here. When a question arose as 
to how Mr. Dunlop should address a letter to him, they 
fixed upon the pleasant name Cherry Valley, from the 
l)re valence of the wild cherry in the vicinity. In 1741 people 
came to settle here from New Hampshire, and also the Scotch 
and Irish who had followed Mr. Dunloi?. The latter opened a 
grammar school, and it enjoyed the distinction of being 
the first established west of Albany. The settlement did not 
grow rapidly the first ten years, only three or four more families 
joining the rest. At the time of the massacre, however, the 
village had a population of three hundred souls. 

Late in October, 1778, intimation was sent to Major Robert 
Cochran, in command at Fort Schuyler, that an Indian rising, 
?iiTch as had devastated Wyoming, was imminent. A fort had 



320 THE EMriRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

been built or, perhaps only a blockhouse, at Cherry "S^alley, and 
one Colonel Alden, with a handful of regulars of the Continental 
army, were stationed in it. On November 6 a letter was sent 
by ^lajor Cochran to Alden warning' him that an attack was 
contemplated on the village. The people also heard of it, and 
asked that they might come into the fort or place their valuables 
there. Alden refused to let them do either, as he discredited the 
warning sent him. He and the officers of the garrison were 
quartered at houses of the people, because of lack of room and 
convenience in the blockhouse. On the night of November 10, 
1778, a party of Tories and Senecas, under Colonel Walter Butler 
(Son of John) and Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, the Mohawk, 
encamped on the top of a hill a mile to the southwest of the fort, 
and overlooking the village. No one knew of their approach, 
for a scouting party sent out by Alden had done their work so 
clumsily that they were seized and murdered. 

During the night it snoAved, and several inches had fallen by 
morning, when the snow turned into rain, and the air was laden 
with a thick, heavy fog or haze. Under cover of this the enemy 
rushed down to do their devilish work upon the unsuspecting 
people. Colonel Alden was the first victim, as the house he stayed 
at was first in their path. Every house, and barn, and stable in 
the ])lace was set on fire. Thirty-two of the people and sixteen 
of the regulars were killed outright. The aged j^astor, Mr. Dun- 
lop, saw his wife brained before his eyes, and while not hurt 
himself, he died from the shock a little later. A large number of 
the people were carried into captivity', to be subjected to the 
most horrible tortures. Cherry Valley was wiped out as a settle- 
ment, and the fort, too, was abandoned in 1779. 

These two massacres convinced Washington that something 
must be done, not only to punish, but to SAveep the Indians and 
the Tories from their haunts in New York. An army of five 
thousand men was detached for the campaign, the chief com- 
mand of which was given to General Sullivan. Dividing his 
force into two divisions, he himself entered New York bv wav of 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



321 



the valley of the Susquehanna, while the other division, under 
General James Clinton, went up the Mohawk River to Cana- 
joharie, and then struck into the interior, joining Sullivan at 
Tioga on August 22, 1779. On August 29 the combined army 
had reached the site of the present city of Elmira, and here was 
fought a decisive battle. Sir John Johnson himself w^as posted 
here at the head of an army of fifteen hundred Tories and 
Indians, John and Walter Butler and Brant being also with him. 

They were utterly routed with 
great slaughter, while the pa- 
triots lost only fifty. The subtle 
foe ventured no other direct en- 
counter, but they were continu- 
ally harassing Sullivan's men, 
cutting off small parties, and su)i- 
jecting the prisoners to the most 
fiendish cruelties, so that the 
Americans were exasperated into 
deeds of retaliation that were 
scarcely less commendable. The 
Iroquois tribes having attained 
some degree of civilization, were 
living now in houses resembling 
those of white men, and exten- 
sively cultivated their fields. 
" All this prosi)erity," says Pro- 
fessor Fiske, " was now brought to an end. I^rom Tioga the 
American army marched through the entire country of the Cayu- 
gas and Senecas, laying waste the cornfields, burning the houses, 
and cutting down all the fruit trees. More than forty villages, 
the largest containing one hundred and twenty-eight houses, 
were razed to the ground.'"' 

These were harsh measures; but it was poor policy, and en- 
tailed more misery tlian it punished or prevent(Ml. It w^as the 
kind of warfare that only provoked, since it could not crush the 
enemy dealt with. The Indian and his companion, the Tory, 




RED JACKET. 



322 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

j>T()wu quite as stealtliy and even a more cruel foe, went up and 
down the province, worlving their will at revenge in small parties 
and in large. Even Albany was not safe from their assaults. 
A party of Tories once actually got within the city with the pur- 
pose of murdering General Schuyler, and came near accomplish- 
ing it. And in many a smiling valley that had tempted settle- 
ments to nestle within its shelter, the story of Cherry Valley 
was repeated with distressful iteration. 

On August 2, 1780, the indefatigable Brant, coming forth from 
that nest of Tories and hostile Indians which had been grad- 
ually forming at Fort Niagara, swooped down upon Canajoharie. 
The militia were away from the village accompanying some 
batteaus on their way up the river, and the marauders had 
watched for just such a chance. Sixteen of the people were 
killed, and fifty or sixty carried off captive, with three hundred 
head of cattle and liorses. Fire laid desolate the church, the 
gristmill, and fifty-three houses, with barns and stables, filled 
with agricultural implements. 

That same autumn, scarce two months later, on October 17, 
1780, Sir John Johnson had reached Schoharie, all the way from 
his lair at Niagara. He was at the head of a party eight hundred 
strong. The Germans, as said before, had settled in this valley, 
their farms commencing at a point about twenty miles up the 
Schoharie Creek from its junction with the Mohawk, and ex- 
tending fifteen miles further up, the valley being of uniform 
width, or from two to three miles. In the path of the enemy were 
found, as usual, homes desolated by fire and sword, the church 
claiming no exemption from such heathenish brutes. The next 
day, October 18, 1780, Caughnawaga (now Fonda), opposite the 
junction of Schoharie Creek and the Mohawk River, was 
burned, as likewise all the country north of the Mohawk between 
Fonda, just south of Johnstown, and Stone Arabia. At Stone 
Arabia, Johnson defeated a small force under Colonel Brown, and 
then he intrenched himself at a place on the river about eight 
miles above Fort Plain. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 323 

These raids weut on without serious opposition until there 
was stationed in the Mohawk Valley a man who deserves more 
than a passing notice. This was Colonel Marinus Willett, a direct 
descendant from Thomas Willett, who was the first mayor of 
New York City, and who was himself its maj^or in 1807. He had 
done a notable deed in the early part of the struggle in his native 
town, when, on June 4, 1775, the British attempted to remove 
arms from the fort by the cartload. Soldiers were needed for 
Boston, after Lexington and just before Bunker Hill, and the 
authorities at New York, much to the disgust of the Liberty 
Boys, of whom Willett was one, had given permission for them 
to go, on condition they should carry away no other arms than 
those upon their persons. When the carts rumbled out of the 
fort gate the alarm was spread, and just as the first cart, with a 
troop of regulars behind it, turned into Broad Street at Beaver 
(where a tablet commemorates the scene), Willett rushed up 
and seized the horse's bridle. The carts were fain to turn about, 
the arms were safely stored, and served to equip the first New 
York regiment for participation in the Canadian campaign. 

Colonel Willett was with Gansevoort at Fort Schuyler in 1777, 
and led a sortie that drove Sir John Johnson from his camp. 
Willett seized the camp and held it long enough for seven wagons 
to be loaded with spoils three times in succession, which adde<l 
to the provisions of the garrison food, tools, blankets, clothes, 
ammunition, besides maps and papers delineating the campaign 
in which St. Leger was engaged. Then he hoisted the flag we 
described on one of the captured standards. 

This resolute person was in command at Fort Plain, on the 
Mohawk, in the summer of 1781, and it immediately became un- 
pleasant for the Tory and Indian raiders. In July he sent a 
scouting party to Sharon Springs. These discovered that the 
enemy had ensconced themselves within a camp near the charred 
remains of Cherry Valley village. This was the signal for action 
for Colonel Willett. He at once led a party into the forest to 
dislodge the marauders before they could swoop down upon 



324 THE EMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

some defenseless town. As he neared their camp he formed his 
men in two parallel lines, concealed in the woods. Then he 
ordered two men to place themselves in the open. The device 
succeeded in decoying the Indians into the forest, and when they 
were well in between the lines a destructive fire was poured in 
among them. Willett then called his men to follow him as he 
rushed upon the camp. Soon there was neither camp nor enemy, 
and the taste for a raid was completely gone. 

Colonel Walter Butler was evidently not aware what sort of a 
man had been sent into the Mohawk region. At the head of over 
six hundred men he had the audacity to pass by Fort Plain and 
occu])y Johnstown, encamping near Johnson Hall, in August of 
this same 3'ear, 1781. Ou August 22, Colonel Willett left Fort 
Plain Avitli a force of only three hundred men, ordering more to 
follow. Without waiting for the latter he began the attack as 
soon as he arrived at Johnstown. Sending one hundred men to 
the rear of the enemy, he fell upon them in front with the re- 
mainder. The whole of the enemy engaged him at once, and his 
men gave way. He tried to rally them at the Hall, and then at 
the village. He actually stopped their retreat here; and now 
two hundred more troops arrived, and he hurled the four hundred 
back against the enemy. P>y this time the men lia<l got into 
Butler's rear, and the rout became complete. Standing not 
ui)()n the order of their going, the enemy fied fast and far. Walter 
Butler was pursued fifteen miles above the present Herkimer, 
u]) West Canada Creek, where he fell a victim to the bullet or 
hatchet of an Oneida Indian (a tribe that remained friendly to 
the patriots), crying out to him as he dealt the death-blow: 
" Sherry Valley! Bemember Sherry Valley! " 

To Colonel Willett belongs the credit of the last energetic 
action of the war. Oswego had all this time been in the hands of 
the enemy, it having fallen before St. Leger's approach. Here 
supplies could readily be brought for the use of the assassin 
bands tluit infested the State from the Niagara to the Schoharie. 
Wilh-tt determined it should no longer serve this purpose. In 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



325 



the winter of 1781 to 1782 he marclied a force from Fort Plain 
to this far-distant fortress, going up the Mohawk on the ice and 
over the snows on snow-shoes. He actuall}^ reached the place 
and prepared to capture it when the news was brought him 
here, far out in the wilderness, that war's occupation was gone, 
for a preliminary treaty of peace had been signed, requiring the 
cessation of hostilities. 

A word or two more about so striking a personality will not 
be amiss. It has been said that he was made mayor of New 
York in 1807. Colonel Willett 
lived many a year after this, 
how^ever, attaining the good 
old age of ninety years. By a 
sort of poetic justice he died 
on the anniversary of the battle 
of Johnstown, on August 22, 
1830. From a newspaper of 
the day we learn the following 
facts, showing that his ruling 
passion remained with him to 
the last hour of his life : " Th*- 
Coffin of Colonel Willett was 
made of pieces of wood col- 
lected by himself many years 
ago from different revolution- 
ary battlegrounds. The corps, in compliance with a written 
request of deceased, was dressed in a suit of ancient pattern, 
with old fashioned three-cornered hat, preserved for the purpose. 
Several thousand persons viewed the remains." 

If upon the soil of New York was enacted, in all its widely ex- 
tended combinations, one of the most fortunate and gratifying 
episodes of the War of the Revolution — the frustrating of Bur- 
goyne's campaign — it was also fated to be the scene of the sad- 
dest and most humiliating — the treason of Arnold. At Ticon- 
deroga the star of his fame began to rise above the horizon; at 




JOSEPH BRANT. 



326 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Stillwater, or Saratoga, it reached its highest zenith; at West 
Point it sank, forever quenched amid clouds of irretrievable dis- 
grace. Yet the \evy magnitude of the crime contemplated by 
him brings into strong belief the conviction entertained by both 
friend and foe as to the vital importance of New York with refer- 
ence to the military situation during the struggle for independ" 
ence. It was the desire of Arnold and of Sir Henry Clinton to 
direct a blow against the cause of the patriots that would be 
fatal not only, but final also. 

Arnold had received much provocation from Congress, always 
more inlluenced by political intrigues and cabals, than by mili- 
tary necessities or army interests. None but a man of rock, like 
Washington, could have endured their fatuous stupidities or 
iniscliievous, malicious pettinesses, which so often brought the 
country to the very brink of ruin. Political influences and per- 
sonal or interstate jealousies had caused Congress to put de- 
liberate slights upon Arnold more than once, when he knew and 
the country felt that he deserved the most signal recognition 
for his services. Arnold's moral fiber w^as not of Washington's 
unassailable strength. Self could rise above country with him 
as it could not with the greater man. And so he fell. He formed 
deliberately a scheme to betray his country. But it was to be 
done on no mean scale. The deed was to end the struggle; and in 
the enormity of the consequence hoped for there lies the only, 
the faintest, attenuation that can be conceived of. 

The period was a critical one. Everything seemed at a stand- 
still at the north. Active operations of the war through 1778 
and 1779 and 1780 were conducted at the south, and there the 
events heard of were usually in the nature of defeat and retreat 
for the Americans, so that a general despondency had seized 
the friends of freedom throughout the States. Even the sur- 
render of Burgoyne was regarded retrospectively as of doubtful 
utility. " Looking only at the surface of things," says Professor 
Fiske, describing the state of feeling prevalent just before 
Arnold's treason, " it might well be asked, and many did ask, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 327 

whether that great victory had really done anything more than 
to prolong a struggle which was essentially vain and hopeless. 
Such themes formed the burden of discourse at gentlemen's 
dinner-tables and in the back parlors of country inns, where 
stout yeomen viewed the situation of affairs through clouds of 
tobacco smoke." 

It is conceivable that Arnold may have thought that it were 
a mercy to end the doubtful contest by one bold, though bad, 
stroke. Then, casting about for a spot where this finishing 
stroke might be driven, and perform its fatal effect with the least 
possibility of doubt, he chose a stronghold on the Hudson, the 
possession of which by the enemy would make him master of the 
river, and this, it was confidently judged, would render further 
resistance to England so entirely out of the question as to secure 
a cessation of warfare and a settlement of difficulties by conven- 
tion. For this reason Arnold asked of Washington the favor of 
being appointed commander of West Point. The service seemed 
to him unsuited to a spirit so active, but Arnold pretended that 
his twice-wounded leg permitted no duties of a more stirring 
sort, and the post was given him. 

West Point had been developed into one of the strongest posi- 
tions that military engineering skill and judgment could con- 
struct. There had been ample leisure for this. Sir Henry Clin- 
ton's excursion of 1777, when Forts Montgomery and Clinton 
fell before his superior force, had not resulted in permanent 
occupancy. Burgoyne's surrender had compelled a prudent con- 
centration of his forces in the vicinity of New York. The com- 
parative inactivity and the absence of the enemy were put to 
good use in fortifying West Point, in order to make the High- 
lands impassable. The works on land and obstructions in the 
river were very much like those described before, but there was 
an improvement in the locations selected. A fort was erected 
on the edge of the plateau now forming the parade-ground at 
West Point Academy, overlooking the river and rising one hun- 
dred and eicrhtv feet above it. Tt was called Fort Arnold, but 



328 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

was soon recliristeiied Fort Clinton, and as snch is a familiar 
spot to visitors of to-day. It afforded room for a garrison of six 
hundred men. Where alone it was barely accessible from the 
river, the way was barred by a line of palisades. 

This cential citadel was flanked on all sides by smaller forts 
and redoubts commanding its approaches from the sui'rounding 
hills; one of these was Fort Putnam, on Mount Independence. 
In the river, from the foot of the eminence bearing Fort Clinton 
to Constitution Island — ^just where the steamers to-day have to 
make a sharp bend at right angles to their course — a chain and 
boom were laid, pieces of which are exhibited still at West Point 
and the Newburg headquarters. The militia of Orange County, 
hastih^ gathered and ill trained, was no longer required to gar- 
rison so important and scientific a stronghold. The regulars of 
the Continental army were placed there under the best of 
officers. 

Sir Henry Clinton could not let this work progress here with- 
out doing something to interfere with it. A most important out- 
post, at the entrance of the Highlands, was to be a fort building 
on Stony Point, a promontory of solid beetling rock, rising from 
the Hudson Hiver on three sides. Before this fort could be made 
sufficiently defensible, Clinton came up the river in person, on 
Maj 31, 1779, and captured it, thereby reducing or silencing also 
a redoubt on Yerplanck's Point opposite. The enemy went on to 
finish the works on Stony Point. They built two additional 
lines of fortification. They placed strong batteries on each 
side facing the river, and on the laud side particular care was 
taken that the guns should sweep the only approach feasible 
there. A marsh separated the jutting rock from the mainland, 
through which led a narrow causeway; and fearful execution 
w^ould be done upon the army that would dare pass over this 
causeway. Six hundred British soldiers were quartered here, 
and the place was regarded as impregnable. 

But " mad Anthony Wayne," one of the bravest and most 
dashing of the American officers, did not regard it in that light. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



329 



The British had been ensconced in Stony Point scarcely six 
weeks, when, on July 15, 1779, (ieneral Wayne took it neatly out 
of their hands. It was to be done only by surprise. Twelve hun- 
dred men were placed at his disposal. Every dog within three 
miles was killed, and not a gau was loaded, so that no incon- 
siderate bark or gunshot might give the alarm. At midnight the 
attack was made, while the tide was low, allowing a wider line 
and a quicker approach of the whole force. The garrison was not 
aroused till the Americans were so near that the guns trained 
on the causeway did them 
but little harm. A bayo- 
net charge in two columns 
carried everything before 
them, and in a few min- 
utes Stony Point ' had 
changed masters, with 
only fifteen killed on the 
patriot side. 

Thus the commander- 
in-chief could go on with 
the perfecting of his plans 
at West Point, and by the 
summer of 1780 every- 
thing was finished. It 
needed but so popular 

and brave a general as Arnold to make the post still more effec- 
tive as a bar to British progress up the river. Neither Arnold 
nor Clinton, with whom he had been in correspondence for some 
months before his arrival on August 6, 1780, were at fault in 
considering West Point the '' key to the continent," and its sur- 
render to the enemy equivalent to the end of the war. Beyond to 
the north, Albany and all that for which Burgoyne's campaign 
had been planned, would have fallen into British hands. If their 
army would come up in force, supported by a fleet, expeditions, 
with West Point as base, could be sent out laterally eastward and 




SIR HENRY CLINTON. 



330 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

westward. To the east the French contingent, sent over as a 
consequence of the alliance induced by the victory over Bur- 
goyne, could have been driven out of the country; or at least it 
could have been checked in any movement looking toward com- 
bination with the Americans by land, something which the 
British fleets were most effectually preventing by water. And 
considering that the last hope of success, and its actual accom- 
plishment at last, depended upon this very co-operation with the 
French army, it can be seen how vital a point had been chosen 
by the conspirators for the blow that was to wreck the cause of 
freedom. 

On September 20, 1780, Major John Andre, adjutant-general 
of the British army, a man of brilliant parts and noble charact^^r, 
was sent up the river in the sloop-of-war " Vulture," warned at 
the last moment by Sir Henry Clinton not to put on any disguise 
and not to carry papers. On Thursday evening, September 21, 
he landed at an appointed spot four miles below Stou}' Point, and 
met Arnold. Day dawned before the details of the plot were 
finished, and they went to the house of Joshua Hett Smith, 
standing on a hill overlooking the present Haverstraw. 

All of Friday, September 22, was spent at Smith's house, and 
during the conference Andre deemed it best to secure descrip- 
tions and specifications in Arnold's handwriting. These he 
placed in his stockings under his feet; but he had made his 
first fatal mistake. During this day the firing from the fort on 
Verplanck's Point had caused the " Vulture " to go far down 
the river, and it became necessary for Andre to travel by land, 
For this purpose he put on a disguise, and committed his second 
fatal mistake. On Friday after sundown Smith took Andre 
across the river, with orders from Arnold to conduct him to 
White Plains. 

It was a bad country to travel through by night or by day. 
Westchester County was called the "neutral" ground; it lay 
between the British on Manhattan Island and the American 
outposts in the Highlands, under neither the civil nor militarv 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 331 

surveillance of either, and became a " happy hunting ground " 
for lawless bands of sympathizers with either cause. We get 
no more vivid idea of the state of things here than from Cooper's 
" ^Py/' tlie scenes of which are mainly laid in this territory. 
Here roamed the " Skinners," who were for independence; and 
here, too, " Cowboys " of an order quite different from their later 
namesakes, made life miserable for all those who were not 
Tories. 

But neither band made any very exhaustive inquiries into the 
political complexion of a barnyard filled with cattle or other 
good things which they had a mind to appropriate. Neither 
would they stop to parley long with any stray travelers whose 
appearance gave hope of yielding a goodly purse after being 
made incapable of refusing that favor. Joshua Smith, therefore, 
refused to ride with Andre at night, and they stopped at a farm- 
house until dawn. There was then some dispute as to the safety 
of a road leading to White Plains through the interior, and one 
along the river, and upon Andre's deciding on the latter he was 
left to pursue it alone, and Smith returned to his house, report- 
ing to Arnold that Andr«§ was safely on his way to the British 
lines. 

Unfortunately for him, however, the way was a long one, and 
various encounters were possible. He met neither Skinners nor 
Cowboys, but after he had crossed the bridge which was the 
limit to the Hessian horseman's riding in Irving's charming tale, 
as he was proceeding up the incline beyond it, and uearing the 
village of Tarrytown, in a hollow of the ground suddenly break- 
ing away from the right side of the road, where to-day stands 
the monument commemorating the deed of that Saturday morn- 
ing, September 23, Andre met three young farmers, armed with 
guns, on the watch for Cowboys, for they were adherents of 
the patriot cause. History has always fondly remembered their 
names : John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart, and David Williams. 

Suspecting something wrong, they searched him, and the re- 
moval of his boots at once brought to light the compromising 



332 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

papers. Andre revealed his rank and promised large rewards 
if they would let him go. But these sturdy Westchester boys 
were no Skinners; they were deaf to bribery. They took Andre 
and his papers to Colonel Jameson at North Castle. The latter 
was puzzled. The possibility of Arnold's committing treason 
never entered his head, so he detained the prisoner and sent a 
letter announcing his arrest to his general, and by a special 
messenger dispatched the papers found on Andre's person to 
Washington. 

The letter reached Arnold at breakfast on Monday morning, 
while he was awaiting Washington at the Robinson House, 
located near the banks of the Hudson, opposite West Point. He 
took a hurried farewell of his wife and succeeded in escaping to 
the " Vulture," waiting for Andre twenty miles down the river. 
A few hours later Washington was found by Jameson's second 
messenger at the Robinson House, the man being late because 
the commander-in-chief had taken a somewhat different route 
on his way back from New England and the French army than 
Jameson supposed he would take. 

Seeing that matters at West Point were not left in the condi- 
tion promised, and already arranged for by the traitor, Wash- 
ington hurried down to Tappan, in Orange (now Rockland) 
County, where the headquarters of the army had been estab- 
lished. Here on Thursday, September 28, just one week after his 
conference with Arnold, Andr^ was brought from North Castle. 
There was no escaping the conclusion that he had acted the part 
of a common spy, although some of the circumstances and his 
own personality raised the event above the common. Yet such 
might well have been the reflection in the case of Nathan Hale, 
upon whcmi the British wasted neither sympathy nor courtesy. 
Andr(^ had more than was perhaps his due of both, for there 
was much more humanity among the Americans than among 
their opponents. On Monday, October 2, Andre suffered the 
penalty of his perilous act. The gallows were erected on high 
ground, about a quarter of a mile, as one follows the winding 



THE EMI'IKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



333 



road, from the Dutch Church at Tappan; on the left of the rail- 
road as one approaches the place from New York by the West 
Shore Koad. 

Sometimes it is well to turn from history to fiction, since fic- 
tion. Id its intense realization of the past, serves that past better 
than the cold annals which often mention events rather for the 
sake of their order in time than of their significance as picturing 
to us an earlier day with its living and breathing present. And 
the glamour of interest in this sad end of a misguided soldier has 




THE WALTON HOUSE, BUILT IN 1754, OPPOSITE PHESENT SITE OF HAKPEli BROTHERS' 

PUBLISHING HOUSE. 



lately been increased by a novel which had enlisted the admira- 
tion of man}', and is a real addition to American letters. In 
" Hugh Wynne " the imprisonment and execution of Andre are 
vividl}' portrayed. Here is a description of Washington's head- 
quarters, which is still preserved at the rear of a larger modern 
frame house in the midst of a fine park and farm : 

" I walked a half-mile up a gentle rise of ground to the main 
road, about which were set, close to the old Dutch Church, a few 
modest, one-story stone houses, with far and near the canton- 



334 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

ments of the armies. At the bridge over Piermont Creelv I was 
stopped b}' sentries set around a low brick building, then used as 
headquarters. It stood amid scattered apple trees on a slight 
rise of ground, and was, as I recall it, built of red and black 
brick." Andre's prison was a small house belonging to a person 
by the name of Maby, about three hundred yards from head- 
quarters. This building, too, may still be seen at Tappan to- 
da^'. It was built as a tavern in 1755, and always kept as such, 
as it is now; it is one story high " with windows set in an irreg- 
ular frame of brickwork." 

The novelist gives us also a vivid picture of the execution : 
'' Of the horrible scene at noon on the 2d of October I shall sa}' 
very little. A too early death never took from earth a more 
amiable and accomplished soldier. I asked and had leave to 
stand by the door as he came out. ... I fell in behind the 
sad procession to the top of the hill. No fairer scene could a 
man look upon for his last of earth. The green range of the 
Piermont hills rose to north. On all sides, near and far, was the 
splendor of the autumn-tinted woods, and to west the land 
swept downward past the headquarters to where the cliffs rose 
above the Hudson. 

" I can see it all now — the loveliness of nature, the waiting 
thousands, mute and j)itiful. ... A deathful silence came 
upon the assembled multitude. I heard Colonel Scammel read 
the sentence. Then there was the rumble of the cart, a low 
murmur broke forth, and the sound of moving steps was heard. 
It was over. The great assemblage of farmers and soldiers went 
away strangely silent, and many in tears." Yes, it was a sad 
occasion, and Washington would have spared Andre if he could. 
Howe never gave the sparing of Nathan Hale a moment's 
thought. Yet neither at Tappan nor at Westminster should 
there have ever been reared a monument to Andre, for there was 
too much of dishonor in the deed he risked his life to aid. At 
Tappan such a monument would have been especially intoler- 



THE E]N[PIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 335 

able, and it is well that one or two attempts have resulted in par- 
tial failure, even though by somewhat violent methods. 

By a remarkable concatenation of circumstances which could 
hardly have been under any other than the direction of a Provi- 
dence watching over the interests of a nation, West Point had 
been saved to American arms. A year later the commotions of 
war were again busy in this vicinity, for Cornwallis had been 
caught in a trap and Washington was marshaling Continental 
forces and French contingents for the swift blow at the distant 
point which ended the war. To succeed in this maneuver, it was 
above all things necessary to deceive the enemy as to its real 
object. Washington was anxious to have Sir Henry Clinton 
believe that there was on foot an extraordinary movement to 
capture New York. 

One of the most successful of his ruses was the sending of a 
dispatch through the lower portions of Orange County on the 
way to Congress at Philadelphia. This region was infested with 
" cowboys," as well as Westchester, and one band under a Cap- 
tain ]Mo()dy was esi)ecially active. Into their hands fell, as was 
intended, the document describing in detail, and without attempt 
at concealment by cipher, an elaborate plan concocted by the 
commander-in-chief and the commander of the army and navy 
of France in American waters. The objective point was plainly 
stated to be New York City. The valuable information was sent 
by Mood}^ to Clinton, who promptly withdrew a large re-enforce- 
ment from Cornwallis, which might have prevented the great 
triumph of October 19, 1781. 

The war was now over, and yet the remainder of military 
events transpired on NeAv York soil. The main part of the Con- 
tinental army, under the immediate command of Washington 
himself, returned to this State, and was distributed at various 
points in the Highlands of the Hudson, and also below and above 
them. In April, 1782, Washington made his headquarters at the 
house of a ^fr. Hasbrouck, a farmer residing a little to the south 
of the then village of Newburg. These are the famous head- 



336 THE EMPIRE STATE lx\ THREE CENTURIES. 

quarters still preserved with such merited solicitude iu the latter 
city. 

Duriu.u the winter of 1782 to 1783 the Continental army had 
been reduced to about ei.nht thousand men, b^^ reason of fur- 
loughs and resignations, these being eagerly accepted, as the 
Congress was hard put to it satisfying the demands of the sol- 
diers and officers in the matter of their pay. In May, 1782, a 
letter was addressed to Washington at NeAvburg, suggesting to 
him that there seemed, to many officers, no way out of the diffi- 
culties, and even anarchy then threatening the country, but that 
he assume the authority and title of king. Washington was ex- 
ceedingly pained at this foolish suggestion, and pathetically 
asked what act in his public career had given them the idea that 
he could entertain such a suggestion even for a moment. So this 
episode blew over harmlessly. 

A more serious occurrence was the meeting summoned as the 
result of two anonymous letters, which recklessh^ urged to seek a 
redress of grievances by violent means. It involved the deser- 
tion of tlie country, as Washington put it, " in the extremest 
hour of her distress, or turning our arms against it." The pre- 
cious Gates, staggering under the obloquy of the cabal against 
Washington and his disgraceful defeat at the south, but still 
an officer by reason of his political " pull,"' is supposed to have 
been at the bottom of these seditious councils, and the anony- 
mous letters were entirely worthy and characteristic of him, 
especially when it is considered that the second one was so 
worded as to seek to compromise Washington. When the gen- 
eral was made aware of the movement on foot, he at once de- 
termined to guide the sentiments aroused into better channels. 

The meeting of the officers was called on Saturday, ]March 15, 
1783, at the " Temple," a frame structure near the headquarters 
(removed in September, 1783), constructed primarily for public 
worship, and large enough to contain a " brigade " at a time. 
There were also rooms for officers at one end, and a cupola and 
flagstaff on the roof. Washington appeared among the assem- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



337 




GOV. EGBERT MONCKTON, AFTER PORTRAIT BY WEST 



338 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

bled officers, with General Gates in the chair, appealing to their 
patriotism to endure what Congress could not at present remedy, 
to lay aside all thoughts of violence or desertion, which were 
practically treason; and pledged himself to do his utmost for 
them, assuring them that Congress was acting toward them in 
good faith 

'' Let me conjure you," he said, " in the name of our common 
country, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as you 
regard the military and national character of America, to ex- 
press your utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, 
under any specious pretenses, to overturn the liberties of our 
country; and who wickedly attempts to open the flood-gates of 
civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood." These 
words swept the small machinations of a Gates before them, 
restored officers and army to a true sense of their purpose, and 
aroused within them the fervor of a patriotism akin to that 
which burned in the soul of a Washington, and which had in- 
spired the appeal to which they had listened. 

iNleantime the commissioners at Paris, rei^resenting the con- 
tending nations, had arranged preliminary articles of peace, the 
news of which was promulgated in a general order on the day 
before the anniversary of Lexington, 1783, lending enthusiasm 
to its celebration the next day. On September 3 a definitive 
treaty and peace were signed, which was announced to the 
country in October, and on November 2, 1783, was formally pro- 
claimed to the army. The closing ceremonies of evacuation by 
the enemy and occupation by the American troops occurred at 
New York City on November 25, 1783. 

The troops had marched down earlier in the month and were 
awaiting the signal to enter the city at noon of that day. When 
it came the march was begun, the fort formally taken, and the 
flag rtung to the breeze. On December 4 Washington asked his 
officers to meet him at Fraunce's Tavern, still preserved, an<l in 
the '^ Long Room " on the second floor he took from them a fare- 
well so touching in its simplicity that not one of these stern 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 339 

warriors but was melted to tears. Then, between files of soldiers 
and crowds of citizens lining the streets and wharves, Washing- 
ton walked to his barge l^ing at the foot of Whitehall Street, 
or at the present South Ferry. As he stepped in and the boat 
moved off, deafening huzzas from the people drowned the salvos 
of cannon. It was the " last scene of all that closed this strange 
eventful history" of the devolution, in which the State of New 
York had borne so prominent a part. 




iJEEKMAN AKMS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE STATE AND THE UNION. 

Y public and fornial enactment New York ceased to 
be a colony and became a State on the date of 
the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. But the 
saving so in solemn resolution, by legislative 
assemblies did not make it so, without the provision for 
very many important details of government. These were 
gradually attended to, carefully arranged, and firmly established 
by a legal instrument then still a novelty in the history of 
governments — a constittttion, drawn up and adopted in due time. 
The events connected with the development of this institution 
make up the civil history of our State, which we have neglected 
while following the stirring military annals of our struggle 
for independence, but which went on just the same in the midst 
of war. 

We have seen that the Provincial Assembly of New York, 
the bold initiator of the contest which could have no end except 
in independence, kept up the contest bravely till independence 
was quite within sight, and then was inclined to back down a 
little, as if frightened at the specter to which it had given a 
soul and body. The mantle of the initiative in patriotic work fell 
then upon those members of the Assembly who were willing to 
face the new future evoked, who constituted a Committee of 
Correspondence. 

This committee, early in 1775, sent a call to all the counties 
of the Province, inviting and urging them to elect delegates to a 




£ng by Wilkams HewYork 



k. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIUEE CENTURIES. 341 

Provincial Convention, which was appointed to meet in New 
York City on April 20. There being no telegraph in those times, 
the convention met on that date, entirely oblivious of what had 
taken place at Lexington the day before. It remained in 
ignorance during its whole session of three days, adjourning on 
Saturday, April 22. 

On Sunday, the 23d, the news of Lexington reached New York, 
and affairs at once assumed a new phase. The Committee of 
Correspondence was in existence as a sort of executive com- 
mittee of these legislative bodies, and it at once sent out cir- 
culars again to the various counties. The convention just ad- 
journed had had for its one aim the election of delegates to the 
Second Continental Congress, to assemble at Philadelphia in 
xMay, 1775, called for by the First Congress of September, 1774. 
The counties were asked to provide for a more radical step now. 
The delegates to be chosen were to compose a Provincial Con- 
gress to legislate and act as present emergencies should seem 
to dictate. With this changed aspect of the case, the counties 
so responded, and the first Provincial Congress of New York met 
on May 24, 1775. 

Of this first Congress Peter Van Brugli Livingston was chosen 
president. In spite of the quasi-revolutionary situation which 
Jiad called it into being, its main business seems to have been 
the drawing up of a plan for reconciliation with England, in 
which it exhibited a willingness to make concessions of so 
serious a character that the agent of the Province in England 
w^as fain to find fault with it for its " scrupulous timidity." 
This agent deserves a moment's attention. It had been the 
custom for many years for the colonies to have an agent eacli 
in or near Parliament to watch legislation or guide it in their 
interest. In the year 1770 the Assembly, on the nomination 
of Philip Schuyler, had chosen for the office of agent for New 
York no less a person than the famous orator Edmund Burke, 
'' for whom his own country," says Bancroft, " had no employ- 
ment." TTis salary was fixed at £500 yearly. 



342 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

With no royal governor any longer recognized and no state 
regularly constituted being yet in existence, the chief authority 
rested with the president of the Provincial Congress. To this 
position was elected Nathaniel Woodhull, in August, 1775. pro 
Icmporc, and as permanent incumbent, at the third Congress, in 
July, 1776. A sad fate overtook him only a few weeks later. He 
Avas a resident of Mastic, Suffolk County, on Long Island. As a 
man of some military experience (we met him as major going 
with Bradstreet on his expedition against Fort Frontenac) he 
was made brigadier-general of the militia of Queens and Suffolk 
counties. The duty assigned him was to collect cattle and drive 
them away before the approach of the enemy, when they had 
made their landing on the island. 

This done he found himself under orders from which neither 
the Provincial Congress nor Washington released him, to remain 
at Jamaica, having but one hundred militia with him. This was 
a critical situation after the battle of Long Island, and he was 
soon overtaken by the enemy. The captors, under the direction 
of their officer, Colonel Oliver De Lancey, a rabid Tory, were 
guilty of the outrage of seriously wounding General Woodhull 
with their swords after he had yielded his own. They followed 
up this crime by refusing him proper medical attendance and 
thrusting him into indecent places of confinement, until an 
English officer took pity on him, and had him removed to a 
farmhouse at New Utrecht. Here his wounds were finally 
dressed, but it was too late; gangrene had set in, and General 
Woodhull died on September 20, 1776, less than a month after 
the battle of Long Island. 

The second Provincial Congress was not much better than the 
first in forceful and decided patriotic action. Two of the coun- 
ties, Queens and Richmond, declined to send delegates alto- 
gether. It met in the autumn of 1775, and distinguished itself 
by objecting to the investment of the city for its defense against 
the British, by the army sent to New York by Washington under 
General Charles Lee, in February, 1776. The Continental Con- 



THE KMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



343 



(jress, however, insisted that Lee shouhl proceed;, and he came 
in spite of the provincial body's remonstrance. No final break 
with the British officials still lingerini; abont New York Harbor 
was made until Washington's arrival in April, 1776. The third 
Provincial Congress met in New York in May, and under its 
auspices steps Avere inaugurated for the organization of the 
J^tate. 

This Congress was obliged to leave the city, which had been 
the seat of colonial and provincial legislation since it was first 
instituted in 1683. The press of military events made it ex- 
pedient to adjourn to White Plains, 
and here, on July 9, it received a copy 
of the Declaration of Independence 
promulgated at Philadelphia on July 
4, 1776. It was referred to a com- 
mittee, whose chairman, John Jay, 
drew up a resolution, which was 
unanimously adopted: "That the 
reasons assigned by the Continental 
Congress for declaring the United 
Colonies free and independent States 
are cogent and conclusive; and that 
while we lament the cruel necessity 
which has rendered this measure un- 
avoidable, we approve the same, and 
will, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, join with the other 
colonies in supporting it." 

General W^oodhull had been elected President on July 6, and 
in view of the martyrdom so close upon him it was language 
worthy of him, and indicated a great advance upon the timid 
attitude hitherto maintained b}^ the Congress. It therefore also 
cheerfully accepted the logical consequences of the Declaration 
and the indorsement of it. On August 1, 1776, Gouverneur 
Morris moved, and William Duer (later president of Columbia 
College) seconded, that a committee be appointed to prepare and 




SIR CHARLES HARDY. 



344 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

report a plan for the organization of a new form of government 
for the State. Of this John Jay was appointed chairman, and 
associated with him were Gouverneiir ^lorris, Robert Ia. Living- 
ston, William Dner, Abraham and Robert Yates. John Morin 
Scott, William Smith, the historian (who later left the country 
as a Tory) and others not so well known. 

The committee was to report on August IG; but the turmoil 
of war did not permit such prompt proceedings of a civil nature. 
Before August was far advanced the Congress had to adjourn 
from White Plains to Harlem, where it met in the church. It 
migrated in quick succession to Kingsbridge; to Philipse Manor, 
at Yonkers; to Fishkill; to Poughkeepsie; and finally, in Feb- 
ruary, 1777, from the latter place to the village of Kingston, 
which, as the temporary capital of the State, drew down upon 
itself, as we saw, the vengeance of General Vaughan, in 
October, 1777. 

The remainder of the year 177C>, after the committee was 
appointed, was not favorable to government making. It was 
not till after Washington had put new life and hope into the 
cause of independence, at Trenton and Princeton, that John Jay 
seriously addressed himself to the task of drawing up the Con- 
stitution of the State. Retiring to some retreat in the country, 
he was busy at it through the winter months of 1777, and on 
March 12 it was laid before the Provincial Congress, in session 
at Kingston. Its various provisions were carefully discussed 
during several weeks, and on Sunday, April 20, 1777, it was 
unanimously adopted. 

The house in which the Congress met while this momentous 
subject was before them, is still standing, religiously preserved 
and known as the " Senate House," on the corner of ]Maiu and 
Fair streets, at Kingston. It is a plain, substantial building, of 
blue limestone quarried in the neighborhood, two stories high, 
with doors and windows at unequal intervals. Before this house 
the residents of Kingston and as many outsiders as may have 
heard of the intended proceedings and could ixf^i there, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 345 

assembled on Tuesday, April 22, 1777, to hear the Constitution of 
their new State read to them. The occasion was well worthy the 
pencil of the artist, for here was begun the independent life of 
a great member of the Union, then as yet so feeble, which was 
destined in time to become its Empire State. Its preamble said: 
" All power whatever in the State hath reverted to the people 
tbereof," and that there could be no authority over them except 
that derived from and granted by them. 

As to the precise form of government prescribed, Jay had 
allowed himself to be guided by that which the colony or 
province had long enjoyed. " The fact is," says a biographer, 
" that the Constitution of New York was a special adaptation of 
Ihe provincial government, with as few modifications as the 
circumstances required, and those chiefly suggested by the 
history of the province." The main features were a governor as 
chief magistrate, a legislature of two houses, and an independent 
judiciary; so that there was evident the sharp distinction be- 
tween the three great departments of government: the executive, 
the legislative, and the judiciary. To avoid the evils of arbitrary 
selections of officers by the governor alone, which had wrought 
mischief in colonial times, a " Council of Appointment " was 
created to share that responsibility with the governor. Robert 
R. Livingston was appointed chancellor, and John Jay chief 
justice of the new State. On May 13, this memorable conven- 
tion, or Provincial Congress, dissolved, to be succeeded by the 
first State Legislature, which was called to meet at Kingston on 
August 1, 1777. 

An important question was. Who should be the first governor 
of the State? Many thought that John Jay was entitled to 
that honor, but when he was approached on the subject, he 
emphatically declined, feeling that he was better adapted to the 
position of chief justice. The minds of the Council of Safety, 
charged by the late convention with carrying the Constitution 
into effect, then turned instinctively to Philip Schuyler, of 
Albany. Rut the people were now in the saddle, and they had 



346 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

an aversion to aristocrats, even when of sueli fine and noble 
caliber as was Schujier. The election was held on Jul}^ 9, 1777, 
and General George Clinton, the man of the people, big, burly, 
and " magnetic/' was elected to the chair, which he was to hold 
uninterruptedly by repeated re-elections till 1795, only to be 
[)ut in again in 1801, and to be raised thence to the Vice-Presi- 
dency of the United States in 1801, with Jefferson's second term. 

He was a native of Little Britain, in Orange County, descended 
from early Scotch-Irish settlers, and was just forty years old at 
the time of his election. He came of good fighting stock, his 
father being in command of Fort Herkimer, as we saw, in 1758, 
when he and his brother joined Bradstreet on his way to Fort 
Frontenac. He studied law in William Smith's office, and when 
only twenty-eight became a member of the Assembly for Ulster 
in 1708. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1775. 
He qualified as governor on July 31, 1777, but he was not asked 
to resign his command in the army, with which he remained in 
active service until December. The ceremony of inauguration 
was painfully simple: in the presence of the Council of Safety, 
acting until the Legislature should convene, he took the oath of 
office, " clothed in the uniform of the service, and sword iu 
hand, standing on the top of a barrel in front of the courthouse 
in Kingston." If that was the same barrel which had served 
as a rostrum to the clerk of the convention when he read the 
Constitution, it is to be hoped that it escaped the incendiary 
fire of the British, and is still on exhibition at the old State 
House. 

The State had now done what the Continental Congress had 
recommended in April, 1776, even before the Declaration of In- 
dependence had been so much as proposed. It had then resolved, 
" That it be recommended to the several Assemblies and Con- 
ventions of the United Colonies, where no government sufficient 
to the exigencies of their affairs hath been established, to adopt 
such a government as shall, in the opinion of the representatives 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



347 



of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their 
constituents in particular, and of America in general." 

This wise counsel had been followed in New York, as we have 
just seen. The other States — late colonies — likewise acted upon 
it. And now that the war was over, it was high time far the 
States to turn upon the Congress with the retort, " Ph^^sician, 
heal thyself ! " There was for the whole country " no government 
sufficient to the exigencies of its affairs." From the troubles de- 
veloped and the long years of peril, anxiety, friction, opposition, 
which were needed to construct 
and establish such a government, 
we are almost tempted to ask 
whether it were best to have put 
the formation of State govern- 
ments first. Was it not a little 
like putting the cart before the 
horse ? It certainly had the effect 
of encouraging a most lively 
sense of the sovereignty of the 
States, which it was almost im- 
possible sufficiently to suppress 
so as to save any kind of sover- 
eignty for a central government. 

Congress in no way secured for 
itself at first any adequate sov- 
ereignty or power of that sort. 
During the War of the Revolution it acted under the Articles 
of Confederation, and these made the United States as a country 
or a nation about as coherent as a rope of sand. It left to each 
State " its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every 
power, jurisdiction, and right which is not by this Confederation 
expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled." 
But the " express delegation " was not sufficient to give it any 
effective or even respectable central authority. The Confedera- 




WILLIAM PITT 



348 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

tion was modeled after that of Holland, which had accomplished 
glorious things in earlier days, but as a permanently working 
scheme had often broken down badly, and was at this time carry- 
ing the Dutch Republic very rapidly to ruin and dissolution. 

In America the evils of a mere loose confederation, without head 
or heart, did not become glaringly apparent till after the war. 
A common peril and the need of a united front before the enemy, 
had obscured to a great extent the real absence of unity in 
government, but it had not been completely concealed even 
then, as Washington and the army found to their cost time and 
again. But when the war w^as over the dismal spectacle of 
disunion could no longer remain undetected in all its horrors 
and dangers. The period from 1783, when the British left the 
country, to 1789, when Washington was inaugurated, is regarded 
by Professor Fiske as the " Critical Period in American His- 
tory," beyond all comparison even with the period of the pre- 
ceding war. As he remarks again, it was then that the country 
was actually " drifting toward anarchy." 

The manifestation of this dreadful tendency lay conspicuously 
in the way of commercial intercourse. The States made nothing 
less than commercial war upon each other, ^lassachusetts. New 
Hampshire, and Rhode Island closed their ports to British ship- 
ping; and Connecticut thereupon threw hers open with enthu- 
siasm, and then added to the offense by requiring duties paid 
upon imports from Massachusetts. " Pennsjivania discriminated 
against Delaware; and New Jersey, pillaged at once by both her 
greater neighbors, was compared to a cask tapped at both ends." 
It is sad for us to confess that our own State of New York played 
a conspicuous part in this small and foolish business. A flourish- 
ing trade had sprung up between Connecticut and herself, in 
firewood, the supply of this article for New York City, now 
numbering 30,000 persons, depending almost entirely upon the 
neighboring State. Equally important was the trade in eggs, 
vegetables, butter, and cheese, which New Jersey supplied to 
the city. 



THE EAIPIKE STATE [N IHUEE CENTURIES. 349 

New York State was determined to stop the profits of these 
neighbors at the expense of her own citizens. A duty or impost 
was laid upon imported firewood and eggs, and, as it has been 
well said, every lumber sloop from Connecticut and every 
farmer's boat from New Jersey, was to pay entrance fees and 
get clearance papers, as if they were three-masters hailing from 
London or Amsterdam. Only retaliation could follow such a 
policy. Connecticut business men at New London formed a non- 
importation agreement against New York, startlingly like that 
of all America against England in 1765 or 1769. New Jersey 
levied a yearl}^ tax of eighteen hundred dollars on the lighthouse 
owned by New York on Sandy Hook. Professor Fiske does not 
hesitate to aver that "■ but for the good work done by the federal 
convention, another five years would scarcely have elapsed before 
shots would have been fired and seeds of perpetual hatred sown 
on the shores that look toward Manhattan Island." 

And this quarrel and mutual oppression among the States had 
a threatening effect upon the general government. New York 
not only laid a tariff upon eggs and things, but it compelled 
New Jersey to pay duties on everything that was imported from 
abroad for her own use, and that had to pass through the port 
of New York. So its Legislature, by a large majority, voted that 
it would not pay a cent of the requisition of Congress for the 
conduct of government, " until all the States should have 
accepted the measure of an impost for the benefit of the general 
treasury." Other States had other reasons for refusing a gen- 
eral revenue or hampering its collection by Congress. Penn- 
sylvania, at first assenting, later withheld its compliance with 
the revenue plan " unless it should include supplementar}^ 
funds." 

New York imposed the duty proposed by Congress, but re- 
served the revenue to itself, with right of collecting it. Congress, 
in desperation, begged Governor Clinton to convene the Legis- 
lature in special session, so that it might retreat from this 
position. Clinton, who made himself popular by a narrow- 



350 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

minded exclusive regard for New York's interests alone, coldly 
replied : '' I have not power to convene the Legislature, except 
on extraordinary occasions, and as the present business has 
repeatedly been laid before them, and has so recently received 
their determination, it can not come within that description." 
And Congress was helpless before that haught}^ refusal. It 
humiliated itself by another request, but the burly governor, 
scorning the refinements of aristocracy, bluntly denied the 
solicitations of the Supreme Council of the Nation. It was a 
pitiful exhibition, and affected to a most serious degree the 
attitude of Congress and the Nation toward foreign countries. 
The situation was simply intolerable, and a remedy must come 
or ruin would follow apace. 

What was to be done? At first a convention of delegates from 
the several States was called to meet at Annapolis, IMd., in Sep- 
tember, 1786. It was to deal only with the subject of commercial 
intercourse between the States, but it failed even of this pur- 
])ose, for only five States were represented, Virginia, Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Thus the very State 
where it met was not represented. Yet it was not a fruitless 
meeting by any means, for out of it grew the great convention 
that gave us the Federal Constitution. Two things contributed 
to this. New Jersey, in appointing its delegates, gave a hint of 
possibilities beyond " commercial regulations," by emphasizing 
" and other important matters," which " might be necessary to 
the common interest and permanent harmony of the several 
States." 

The other instrumentality employed by an overruling Provi- 
dence to secure the greater results so much needed, was a person 
in whom New York State may take a just pride. At a meeting 
in the " Fields," or Commons, in New York City in 1774, to 
discuss or ratify the appointment of the State's five delegates 
to the first Continental Congress, a speech was made by a mere 
stripling of seventeen, a student at King's (or Columbia) Col- 
lege, which had electrified the audience with its eloquence as 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



351 



well as solid reasouing and common sense. This was the first 
public appearance of Alexander Hamilton, a native of the West 
Indies, but then and ever after an ardent supporter of the cause 
cf independence, and a devoted citizen of New York State. 

At the outbreak of the war he had organized an artillery 
company, had served Washington as an aid, had risen to the 
rank of colonel, and was the leader of the American regiment 
wliich took one of the redoubts at Yorktown, while a French 
detachment took the other — the success of which maneuver 
settled the fate of Cornwallis. After the war he had studied law, 
fitting himself for the bar with extraordinary rapidity, and dis- 
playing unusual ability in 



this new profession, and 

he was to attain immortal 

distinction also in the 

ranks of statesmanshi}). 

As one has truly said: 

" His rare powers entitle 

him to the fame of being 
the first intellectual prod- 
uct of America." It is 

interesting to note that 

he was the more closely identified with the interests of the State 
of New York as having been linked in marriage to one of the 
oldest and best of its families, Elizabeth, the daughter of Gen- 
eral Philip ScJiuyler, having been won by the handsome face 
and extraordinary talents of the almost friendless and certainly 
homeless young man. 

At the bar Hamilton had already won the reputation of a 
" model of eloquence and the most fascinating of orators," as 
Story puts it. He was sent by New York to represent it at 
Annapolis. When any other business seemed useless, Hamilton 
occupied the time to carry out in a paper the hint thrown out by 
New Jersey as to " other matters." This was an address directed 
to all the States, and urging that commissioners be appointed 







BURNS ij COFFEE HOUSE. 



352 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

to meet in Pliiladelpliia on the second Monday in May, 1787. 
These were to " devise snch further provisions as shall appear 
to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Gov- 
ernment adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to report 
to Oongress such an act as, when agreed to by them, and con- 
firmed by the Legislatures of every State, would effectually 
provide for the same." 

This convention accordingly met in Philadelphia, May 14, and 
on September 17, 1787, it had completed the work which is still 
the wonder of the world. New York was represented only by 
Hamilton during the greater part of the session of the conven- 
tion. The Legislature consented to send delegates, but it reduced 
the proposed number of five to three: Alexander Hamilton, Rob- 
ert Yates, and John Lansing. Governor Clinton looked with no 
favor upon the undertaking, declaring that no good was to be 
expected from it; that the confederation was good enough. 
Yates, in the Senate, had tried to pass a resolution, only de- 
feated by the casting vote of the president, looking to the 
essential preservation of the articles of confederation. 

When it was seen by him and Lansing that a change very 
radical was being made, thej vacated their seats in the conven- 
tion and came no more. This was on July 10, 1787. It was 
nothing to boast of for New York. We must submit to Ban- 
croft's just reflection on this act of her representatives: " The 
State which had borne itself with unselfish magnanimity 
through the War of the Ilevolution had fallen under the sway of 
factious selfishness. Yielding to this influence, Yates and Lan- 
sing, renouncing the path to glory, deserted their post, leaving 
to the South the power to mould the commercial policy of the 
Union at its will." 

Another unfortunate result was that the withdrawal of his 
colleagues left Hamilton without a vote, so that he took very 
little active part subsequently in shaping the Constitution. In 
only one particular does New York enjoy the credit of having 
contributed materially toward the general result of the Con- 



THE EAIPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 353 

stitutioii. To make it effective it was of importanc-e tliat tlie 
principle of a ceutral or j^eueral sovereignty, attached to a body 
of government over all the States, should be recognized. Even 
in the Dntch Itepublic there was a public domain for the States- 
(leueral. owing no allegiance to any of the confederated 
provinces, because conquered and held for all, called the " Gen- 
erality." 

Such public domain was desired for Congress, and when the 
appeal was made to the various States to yield their claims to 
lands in the far West, New York was the first to yield. By virtue 
of the suzerainty or protection exercise<l for generations over 
the League of the Six Nations, New York claimed all of the 
territory subject to these tribes as far West as the Miami Kiver. 
Three years before the preliminary treaty of peace, or as early 
as 1780, New York relinciuished this territory for the purpose of 
establishing a public domain for the republic. In this she set " a 
praiseworthy example/' followed by Virginia and other States 
with Western claims. The creation of the domain was one of 
the " germs of national sovereignty," which made more easy the 
transition to other ^' germs," till the full blossom came forth in 
the Federal Government aimed at and provided for by the Con- 
stitution just frauu^d at Philadelphia. 

The Constitution duly adopted by the convention itself on 
September 17, 1787, remained to be ratified by the several States. 
By its own provision nine adopting States were necessary to put 
the Government into operation. New Hampshire became the 
ninth ratifying State on Juue 21, 1788, with Virginia the tenth 
on June 25, and the Federal Government was an established fact, 
even without the consent of New York. The openly avowed 
attitude of her popular hero and governor, and the conduct of 
her delegates to the Constitutional Convention boded ill for the 
ratification and the cause of Fechn-nl Government in our State. 

But if the way promised to be difficult, this stiumlated to the 
utmost exertion the powers of that most brilliant friend of the 
Constitution, Alexander Hamilton. On October 27, 1787, there 



354 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

appeared in the Independent Journal, published at New York, the 
first of the remarkable series of papers, now world-famous, under 
the name of " The Federalist." They came out about three or 
four times a week, on the average, for several months, until 
eighty-five had been published. They were written under x^seudo- 
nynis, as was then the custom, and the authorship was divided 
among Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. 
Hamilton wrote sixty-three of these numbers, and three jointly 
with Madison; Madison was the sole author of fourteen; and Jay, 
who was not at the Convention, wrote five. Thus the prepon- 
derating merit of their authorship belongs to Hamilton. 

The papers discussed in a masterly manner, with clear, cogent 
reasonings and convincing illustrations from history, the various 
provisions of the Constitution in their minutest details. No one 
reading them could plead ignorance of its parts, or of its reach 
and significance as a mode of government. It was a splendid, 
honest, enlightening antidote to the floods of ignorant prejudice 
wherewith Clinton and his party sought to spoil the fair creation 
of Federal Union in the minds of the masses. In opposition to 
the " Federalist " they sought out many of the devices of the 
lower order of politicians, but in the final result they were 
beaten. The field for the supreme battle between the Union and 
anti-Union parties, was the convention called, for the purpose of 
ratifying the Constitution, at Poughkeepsie. When the Legis- 
lature met in January, 1788, Governor Clinton sent in the pro- 
ceedings of the Federal Convention without a word of comment 
or recommendation. Not one of the members made a motion in 
reference to the all-important subject until January 31, when 
Egbert Benson moved the ordering of a State convention to 
ratify the Federal Constitution. A i)reamble condemning the 
proceedings of the convention was defeated by a vote of twenty- 
seven against twenty-five. A motion in the Senate to postpone 
was defeated by the still narrower margin of one vote, or nine 
a_gainst ten. Thus did the matter tremble, as it were, in the 
balance; but the convention was ordered. Yet as a blow that 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 356 

was supposed to be surely fatal it was directed that the usual 
restrictions upon voting should be disregarded. Every male 
white citizen twenty-one years of age might vote for members 
of the convention, even though he were a resident of the State 
of but one day. This would bid hordes of irresponsible men vote 
for representatives favoring the anti-Federalist views of Clinton 
and his party. 

The convention was appointed for June 17, 1788, and met in 
the courthouse of Dutchess County at Poughkeepsie. It was the 
second building used for that purpose, the first, erected in 1743, 
having been burned three years before. The cost of its successor 
was twelve thousand dollars, and a very respectable structure 
could be put up in that day for this sun). Poughkeepsie had been 
erected into a township only a few months before. 

Sixty-five delegates were elected, representing twelve counties, 
Columbia, organized in 178r), not sending any, and Clinton com- 
bining with Washington, from which it had been separated this 
same year, 1788. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay. Robert R. 
Livingston, Isaac Roosevelt, James Duane, and four others ap- 
peared for the city and county of New York. Governor Clinton 
represented Ulster County, with other colleagues, and Robert 
Yates and John Lansing, the deserters from the Federal Con- 
vention, stood for the city and county of Albany. Sixty-one of 
the sixty-five members elected appeared and qualified, and on 
the day of meeting, June 17, 1788, Governor Clinton was chosen 
president. On the 19th the discussions began. 

It was soon found that more than two-thirds of the members 
had come prepared to vote against ratification. The battle for 
the Union promised to be a hard one, and Hamilton, seconded 
by Jay, w^as stimulated to exert his utmost powers. There 
was easily distinguishable a sort of geographical division of 
sentiment. The head and center of antagonism to the Constitu- 
tion was Ulster County, Governor Clinton's own, and the feeling- 
was shared by the counties north of it also. The southern coun- 
ties, along the Hudson, on Long Island and Staten Island, and 



356 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

New York City, were known to be so strongly in favor of Union 
that a split in the State was by no means felt to be improbable; 
and this, more than anything else, modified the violence of Gov- 
ernor Clinton's opposition. 

For three weeks after June 19 the battle raged about the 
proposition and adoption of certain amendments to the Constitu- 
tion. Then on July 11, John Jay determined to bring the pro- 
longed discussion to a head by moving that the Constitution be 
ratified by New York, and that amendments be recommended. 
But no vote could be forced on this decisive resolution. Some 
days later Melanchthon Smith, of Du(t)chess, offered as a sub- 
stitute a motion which plainly expressed the claim of New York 
to the right of withdrawing from the Union, in case the amend- 
ments were not accepted. This brought forth all the powers of 
eloquence and argument possessed by Hamilton, in a speech on 
Saturday, July 19, which actually won over his opponent to his 
own views, and induced him to relinquish his unpatriotic motion. 

Then Lansing, inveterate foe that he was of Union, unmoved 
by Hamilton's arguments, re-moved Smith's proposition. Before 
Monday Hamilton had secured an opinion from ^ladison on this 
reserved right to witlulraw, and read it to the convention. He 
vrrote, and his words deserve careful perusal : '' My opiui<m is 
that a reservation of a right to withdraw, if amendments be 
not decided on under the form of the Constitution within a 
certain time, is a vondiiionaJ ratification; that it does not make 
New York a member of the new Union, and consequently that 
she could not be received on that plan. The Constitution re- 
(]uires an adoption in toto and forever. It has been so adopted 
by the other States. An adoption for a limited time would be 
as defective as an adoption of some of the articles only. In 
short, any condition whatever, must vitiate the ratification. The 
idea of res«nwing a right to withdraw was started at Richmond, 
and considered as a conditional ratification, which was itself 
abandoned as worse than a rejection." 

Such plain language from an outsider, and from one speaking 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 357 

for Virginia, bad much influence upon the anti-Federalist New 
Yorkers. Two days later, one of their number, Samuel Jones, 
of (Queens County, seconded by Melanchthon Smith, moved to 
ratify without condition, in full confidence, as he said, that all 
proper amendments would be adopted. This motion was voted 
on Saturday, July 26, in open convention, and passed by the 
narrow vote of thirty ayes and twenty-seven nays, four members 
not voting or being absent. But there was a rider attached 
which called for the preparation of a circular letter addressed 
to the Legislatures of the several States, and urging a general 
convention to act upon the amendments adopted by them, and 
modify the Constitution. Madison and Washington both de- 
plored this suggestion. Nevertheless New York had ratified the 
Constituticm, and thus on July 2G, 1788, became a member of 
tlie Federal Republic of the United States. Even Clinton said 
of it, now it had been adopted by his State: " We are unanimous 
in thinking this measure very conducive to national harmony 
and good government." 

Three days before this crucial event in the history of the 
State, the people of the city of New York had already celebrated 
with great enthusiasm and in splendid fashion, the establish- 
ment of the Federal Government by the adoption of it by the 
required number of States. On the morning of July 23 a pro- 
cession, including no less than five thousand persons, started 
from the " Commons," now the City Hall Park. Upon floats 
drawn by horses, various trades exhibited their j)eculiar opera- 
tions, and the seventh float represented the sailors. They ha<l 
constructed a miniature frigate, completely rigged and armed 
with thirteen guns, whose salute had been the signal for the 
start. This frigate was named "Hamilton." 

It was a proper and significant tribute to the efforts of their 
fellow-citizen in behalf of the event they were celebrating this 
(lay. At Annapolis his voice had rallied the discomfited rumj) 
of a convention, and made them the initiators of the one that 
framed the great instrument. His eloquence nnd genius had 



358 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



helped to shape it; and when completed it was his pen and voice 
that waged the mighty battle against disintegrating prejudice. 
And on this very day he was winning a splendid fight against 
fearful odds in the convention at Poughkeepsie. As the French- 
man Guizot said of him: "There is not in the Constitution of 
the United States an element of order, of force, or of duration, 
which he has not powerfully contributed to introduce and caused 
to predominate." Well, then, might the sailors name their ship 




VIEW OF BKOAl) STUKKT AND riTY HALL, NKW YORK, AT CLOSE OF THE COLONIAL 

PERIOD. 

the " Hamilton," and well might it be the most conspicuous 
feature of the federal procession. 

Going past the fort, drawn upon its wagon by ten horses, 
thirteen guns were again fired in honor of the Congress of the 
United States, standing upon the lofty battlements. After a 
march through the principal streets the procession wound up at 
a semi-circular tent covering ten tables radiating from a dais 
at one end, on which the Congress were placed at a table. The 
five thousand persons all sat down to a bountiful r('])ast, en- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 359 

livened by thirteen toasts drank at the end. If New York State 
had not entered the Union three days later, there can be little 
doubt that New York City could not have been kept from 
doing so. 

The onl}^ southern county whose delegates were not a unit for 
the Constitution at Poughkeepsie, was that of Queens. It be- 
comes of interest therefore to observe the enthusiasm wherewith 
its adoption was celebrated in the town of Flushing, within its 
borders. The date set for the celebration was August 8, 1788, 
or one da^^ less than two weeks after the final ratification by 
the State, making the eleventh member of the ITnion, and hence 
that number became the governing one in the arrangements, as 
ten had been in New York City on July 23 previous. 

The dawn of day was ushered in by a salute of guns, or more 
correctly speaking of a gun, for the town possessed only one, 
which was banged and charged so frequently at a visit of 
Washington a year later that that eminent person expected 
to see it explode any minute. It did its work without such 
disastrous consequences now as well as later. The village green 
was in about the center of the old village, occupying a level space 
of ground just before the rise which carries away the roads to 
Whitestone and more southern parts. 

Upon this level, grassy plain a colonnade had been con- 
structed, the pillars beautifully hid in fir and yew, and festooned 
with arches of green boughs between, doing credit to the in- 
dustry of nurseries, for which Flushing is famous. These pillars 
bore the standards of the eleven States now in the Union. At the 
east end of the colonnade there was a canopy of red canvas 
adorned with white linen curtains at the side, looped up grace- 
fully with ribbons of blue. The canopy bore the inscription: 
"Federal Constitution, September, 1787"; and under it stood 
the chair to be occupied by the presiding officer of the day, upon 
a raised platform duly carpeted. 

At three o'clock in the afternoon there was another salute from 
The gun, and this was the signal for the banquet to commence. 



360 THE EMI'IKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

The honor of presiding" liad been conferred upon Colonel William 
S. Sniitli, who had gained some distinction on the island as a 
commander of its militia, and who was also a resident of it. 
But his chief distinction for a later age depended perhaps more 
on the fact that he liad married the daughter of John Adams, 
soon to be Vice-President of the new United States. Eleven 
toasts were offered, the eighth being doubtless suggested by the 
war of pamphlets which had been provoked by the irresistible 
logic and argument of " The Federalist " papers, the answers to 
these making up in virulence aud personal abuse Avhat they 
lacked in reasoning. The toast expressed the prayer: " May the 
liberty of the press be preserved, and its licentiousness pun- 
ished." The oration of the day was pronounced by a student of 
Columbia College; but he did not attain the career of that other 
student who startled an audience in 1774. aud had now become 
the chief advocate of the Constitution. 

So much for the indications of how people felt about the new 
experiment in government in the lower part of the State, where 
the sentiment was known to be prevalently in its favor. But 
iiow was it with the upper counties? We are fortunate in having 
an account of a celebration similar to those in New York City 
aud on Long Island, w^hich took place in the city of Albany, 
the seat of the county whence hailed those determined foes of 
Federal government, Robert Yates and John Lansing. The day 
selected for the event was the same as that at Flushing, 
August 8, 1788. 

The Constitution, engrossed on parchment, was carried aloft on 
a standard carried by a no less illustrious hand than that of 
General Schuyler himself; while a descendant of another old 
Albany settler, and one of its first aldermen. Colonel John A. 
Wendell (an ancestor of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes), carried the 
standard of the United States. As in New York, the trades were 
represented on floats, and they were appropriately led by the 
farmers. After these came the representatives of the various 
business corporations; and even the official boards of churches 




DAMKi, I) roMrkixs. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



361 



took part in the procession in honor of this secular occasion. 
There had been constructed on the hill leading toward the old 
fort what was called the " Federal Bower." It was an open 
structure forty-four feet wide by one hundred and fifty-four 
Teet long, consisting of four rows of pillars fifteen feet 
high. Branches of trees had been laid over the top and 
strings of evergreens wreathed the pillars. In front stood eleven 
arches, also sheathed in green, with the name of a State on 
each. A banquet was served to the company distributed along 
eleven tables, and the toasts also conformed to that potent 
number. But on the return home forceful and unpleasant evi- 
dence was furnished that these Federalists were celebrating in 
an uncongenial atmosphere, for the procession was assaulted by 
the followers of Yates and Lansing, and some broken heads and 
bruised limbs resulted. 

Thus had the State been organized, and the Union been 
j)laced on firm ground, the result of independence so painfully 
won. This firm, compacted organism of State and of United 
States, was the sure portent of prosperity and greatness for 
both. 




;_visj 
i'HILirSE ARMS. 




GEOKGE WASHINGTON 



From the original cabinet size Portrait by Peale, presented bv John Quincy Adams to Carlo 

GtriSEPPE GUGLIELMO BoTTA, AUTHOR OF " HISTORY OF THE War OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE." PURCHASED 
FROM THE BoTTA FAMILY, WITH PUIX CREDENTIALS OP AUTHENTICITY, BY FrEDERIC DE PeYSTER, LL.D., A 

FORMER President of the New Yor.K Historical Society, and presented by his son, Brev.-Maj.-Gen. 
J. Watts db Peyster, New York, to the United States War Department Library, at Washington, D. C 

363 




CHAPTER XII. 

A CHANGE OF CAPITALS. 

A:\rES BRYCE remarks that " the United States are the 
only j;reat country in the worki which has no capital." 
And then he i>oes on to describe what he means by a 
capital, and thereby to i)rove that this country has 
one : " By a capital I mean a city which is not only the seat of 
political government, but is also by the size, wealth, and char- 
acter of its population the head and center of the country, a 
leading seat of commerce and industry, a reservoir of financial 
resources, the favored residence of the great and powerful, the 
spot in which the chiefs of the learned professions are to be 
found, where the most potent and widely read journals are pub- 
lished, whither men of literary and scientific capacity are 
drawn." 

Except in the single count of the location of the political gov- 
ernment. New York may appropriate to herself all these par- 
ticulars, which, in their tout enscmJilc, immensel}" preponderate 
over that merely accidental circumstance. But there was a time 
before these more preponderating features belonged to her, when 
New York was not virtually, but actually, the capital of the 
United States, in having in it the seat of its government. It had 
been the meeting place of the hapless Congress for some years, 
finally reaching this haven of rest after several peregrinations, 
some of which were necessitated in order to escape from its 
own army, which it could not pay, because the States badgered 
it about a revenue. And when these sad days were over and a 



364 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

respectable and self-respecting federal government emerged 
from the discredited confederation, New York City was chosen 
to be the capital of tiie new nation, and witnessed the beginning 
of the great experiment. 

On Jannary 7, 1789, took place the first election for President 
of the United States by the College of Electors in a bona fide and 
not a mere perfunctory manner as now. The narrow margin of 
three votes securing the adoption of the Constitution b}' the 
State, had the ominous effect of enabling the anti-federalists to 
l)revent the choosing of Presidential Electors, so that New York 
State had no part in the election of Washington. Yet this was 
due entirely to " up the State " influences, which have often made 
or marred matters for New York City; and there was no danger 
that Washington should not be warmly welcomed, nor his inau- 
guration be fervently approved of by the people of the capital. 

On April 23, 1789, Washington arrived in the city, landing from 
his barge at the foot of Wall Street. He w^as received with wild 
acclamations of joy, and the town was beautifully illuminated 
at night. Whatever may have been his private convictions as 
to the new government. Governor Clinton's personal affection 
for his old commander could not have been less than that of 
other generals who served under him, and as governor of the 
State he did not fail in courtesy and attention. Clinton met liim 
as he left the barge, at the head of the carpeted stairs, and he 
escorted him to the Presidential residence on Franklin Square. 
In the evening Washington rode down to the governor's house, 
having been invited to dine there. This mansion was the one 
erected in colonial times by Abraham De Peyster, and stood in 
Queen (now Pearl) Street, opposite Cedar Street. 

There was a still greater stir in the capital the next w^eek, on 
Inauguration Day, April 30, 1789. Washington was conducted 
by stately procession of the military, and an imposing array of 
civil dignitaries, from the house on Franklin Square to Federal 
ITall. The City Hall, on Wall Street, had been transformed. 
at a cost of |fi5,000, into this more splendid national building, 



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NATHAN HALE LKTTfcli. 



3G6 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THIIEE CENTURIES. 

where another traiisformation phiced a custom-house in hiter 
days, whieJi is uow the Ihiited States Sub-treasurv. Ilere, on a 
l^illared porch, looking far down Broad Street, and visible from 
the right and left on AVall Street from Broadw^ay to the river, 
< Jeorge Washington TO(»k the oath of office as the first President 
of the United States. The streets, the windows, the roofs of 
houses, M-ere black with people who felt so awed b}^ the impress- 
ive ceremoR}', that at first there was the silence of death, which 
broke into a thunderous shout as Bobert B. Livingston, chan- 
cellor of the State, who administered the oath, called upon the 
asseinbh'd multitude to cry: ^' Long live George Washington!" 
Then salvos burst from the guns at the Battery, and Washington 
walked to St. Paul's to attend the religious service conducted 
there, while all the other churches were open for the same pur- 
pose. 

When the hours of festivity were over, the President and Con- 
gress settled down to the business of government. The Senate 
and House of Bepresentatives each had their chambers in Fed- 
eral Hall; and whenever he had a message for the Congress, 
Washington would take it there himself, riding in his canary- 
colored coach with six horses, outriders, and two secretaries on 
horse-back on either side of the coach. At the head of the 
judiciary department of the new government, as chief justice of 
the Supreme Court, was placed that admirable citizen of New 
York, John Jay, the chief justice of his own State before this. 

In the cabinet, consisting then of only four officers, the secre- 
taries of state, of war, of the treasury, and attorney-general, 
the most important place by far was the secretaryship of the 
treasury. Another citizen of New York was appointed by Wash- 
ington to this, a man whose abilities he thoroughly understood, 
Alexander Hamilton. It is impossible to estimate what the 
country owes to this one man. He awoke government to a con- 
sciousness of powers whicli it had not suspected, and in the ex- 
ercise of which it has gone on to prosperity ever since. The 
financial situation was tlu^ rock upon which the confederation 



THE EMl'lUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



367 



had jione to wreck. It was the cue thing that ueeded straight- 
ening out, if the Federal Union was to live: and Hamilton per- 
formed the herculean task. Banking, the mint, excise, manu- 
factures, all felt the power of that creative genius. 

In his first report to Congress " all the confusions disappeared, 
and in terse sentences an entire scheme for funding the debt, dis- 
posing of the worthless currency, and raising the necessary reve- 
nue, came out clear and distinct, so that all men could compre- 
hend it.'' Webster's well-known eulogy of Hamilton was richly 
deserved : " He smote the rock of national resources, and abun- 
dant streams gushed forth." Jt 
was also in accord with poetic jus- 
tice that the State which furnished 
such a contribution to the person- 
nel of the national government, 
should, out of that abundance of 
resources and wealth, have ac- 
(juired a leading position among 
ihe States of the Union. 

The glor}^ of being the seat of a 
government, begun so auspiciously 

under the guiding genius of one of f \ V j, ',i'| 

her own s<ms, soon passed away 
from New York City. In August, 
1790, Washington left his roomy 

mansion (which he had occupied since March) on Broadway, 
and with Congress took up his abode for the rest of his presiden- 
tial career in Philadelphia. But then there still remained its 
ancient glory of being the capital of its own State. Doubtless the 
governor had been somewhat eclipsed by the presence of the 
greater luminary of the President. Now the oft re-elected occu- 
pant of the chair shone forth again as the chief star. He had 
(in 1790) ruled thirteen consecutive years. Professor Fiske says 
of him that " he had come to look upon th(^ State almost as if it 
were his own private manor, and his life was devoted to further- 




LORD DUNMORE. 



368 THE EMriUE bTATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 

inii' its interests, as be un<lerstood thein. It was his first article 
of faitli tliat New York must be the greatest State in the Union." 

Tliis was not so bad a creed to entertain, and in this case seeins^ 
has come to be with all of us believing. But Clinton's states- 
manship was not of the highest order, and not all his methods 
to realize his faith and make it substance and evidence were of 
the wisest or broadest. He deserves credit, however, for an 
earnest zeal in the cause of education. In 1784 the Board of 
Regents of the University of New York was created, its pri- 
mary purpose to foster the enterprise represented by King's 
College, the name of which was now changed to Columbia. Its 
scope was soon extended so as to embrace all academies and 
colleges that might be established in the State, and a gift of 
public lands was made by the Legislature in 1789 to facilitate 
its operations. 

On January 6, 1795, Governor Clinton urged upon the Legisla- 
ture that what had thus far been done in the interests of educa- 
tion had reference mainly to its higher or professional depart- 
ments, and that something was needed for the fostering of com- 
mon schools. The Legislature responded by i»assing an act 
appropriating annually for five years !ji550,000, specifying the 
sums to be paid to each county. The supervisors of the several 
counties were to apportion this money among their respective 
towns. " A sum equal to one-half the sum received from the 
State by the several towns was re(]uired to be raised by a tax in 
such towns, and added to the bounty of the State." 

Tliis commendable achievement of Governor Clinton was on 
the eve of an interruption of his official career. In 1792 John 
Jay had been nominated as governor, and his name was pitted 
against tlie popular Clinton in the election that followed. It 
was made a bitter party fight on the lines of Federalist and ;uiti- 
Federalist, as well as betAveen the aristocrats and the " demo- 
crats," the latter drunk with the fierce and sanguinary platitudes 
of the Frencli Ixevolution. Jav took no part in the campaign, 
yet when t])e election had taken place it appeared that common- 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 369 

sense had triumphed over demagogism, and that a majority of 
the phiin people had at last deserted Clinton, " the horny-handed 
son of toil," for Jay, reared in the lap of luxury and the habitue of 
courts. 

The returning board of that day was a committee of the Leg- 
islature appointed by both Houses, and the majority of its mem- 
bers were Clintonians. They seized upon the returns of three 
counties which had given unquestionable majorities for Jay, and 
declared that these were defective and could not be counted. The 
law required that the votes of each town should be sent in a 
sealed box by the sheriff of the county to the Secretary of State. 
AVith great glee the board discovered three alarming infractions 
of the law. The votes of Otsego County had been sent b}^ an ex- 
sheriff, whose term had expired, but was holding over until the 
new sheriff should qualify. The sheriff of Tioga County had 
given the precious box to a deputy; but the latter was taken 
sick, and the box was taken to its destination b}' his clerk. The 
Clinton County votes were given by its sheriff to a person who 
carried the box safely to its proper (juarter, but who could show 
no written order for performing the duty. 

The circumstances in neither case were sufficient to invalidate 
the ballots cast, as the law was observed in spirit, and the sher- 
iffs in each instance were responsible for the transfer, and made 
it in good faith. But there was enough ground for a regular 
scientific " counting-out " of Jay worthy of a later date, and 
Clinton went in once more, rejoicing as best he could over a 
doctored majority of one hundred and eight votes. The people 
of Otsego County, who alone had given a majority for Jay greater 
than this of Clinton's throughout the State, threatened to march 
to New York, and there were murmurs of " an appeal to arms '' 
elsewhere. But Jay's conciliatory spirit quieted down the agita- 
tion. 

On his return from circuit duty in Vermont, he passed from 
Lansingburgh to New York through a continual ovation. Public 
dinners, addresses, and salvos of artillery were given him at 



370 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Albany and Hudson, and a body of citizens met liim eight miles 
above New York to escort him in triumph to the capital. In 
1795 ample reparation was made; all technical errors were care- 
fully avoided. Clinton declined to run, shrewdly anticipating a 
storm, and Jay beat Kobert Yates by- a majority of sixteen hun- 
dred. He was inaugurated governor on July 1, 1795. This oflace, 
to which he was re-elected in 1798 and held till 1801, was a fitting 
close to John Jay's eminently useful and stainlessly honorable 
public life. He lived in retirement after his second term from 
1801 to 1829, dying full of days and honors at his country seat at 
Bedford, in Westchester County. 

Two events of importance marked Jay's occupancy of the gov- 
ernor's chair. He was known in France as an ami dcs nolrs, " a 
friend of the blacks " — that is, in favor of the abolition of slavery, 
a subject which did not escape agitation by the theorists of the 
first French Republic. At the session of the Legislature in Jan- 
uary, 179G, a bill was brought forward b}^ a member who stood 
in near relations to the governor, which called for abolition. It 
received a tie vote in committee of the whole, am^l the chairman's 
casting vote killed it. At the session of 1799, during Jay's second 
term, another bill was introduced, and passed in April, pro- 
viding that all negro children born after July 4 of that year 
should be free when the males should reach the age of twenty- 
eight and the females that of twenty-five; and the exportation of 
slaves from the State was forbidden. In 1827 the final stroke was 
given, finishing slavery in New York, and it was not till two 
years later that Governor Jay died. 

The other event occurring during his rule was the removal of 
the capital of New York to Albany. In anticipation of the Presi- 
dent's permanent residence in New York, the municipal authori- 
ties had cleared away the old fort and built on the site a hand- 
some and imposing " Government House." It was not completed 
in 1790 when Washington left. This mansion was then occupied 
by Governors Clinton and Jay, although each had a house in the 
eitv. 



THE EMrillL STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



371 



But now a secoud disappointment fell upon the corporation. 
I'lie governor, too, moved away fi'om the city; for, as it had failed 
(o continue as a national capital in 1790, so it failed to continue 
as the State capital in 171)8, after enjoying that distinction since 
1026. Before the meeting of the first Legislature called for 
August 1, 1777, Jay had hinted that Albany would be a good 
place for it. But the hint was not well received. " Some object," 
he wrote to Schuyler, '■' to the expense of living there, as most 
intolerable, and others say that should Albany succeed in having 




EXPLOIT OF MAKINUS WILLETT. 



both the great officers, the next step will be to make it the capital 
of the State." That great dread, it is evident, was gradually 
overcome. Events beyond human control, or as the result of 
human progress under the favorable conditions realized in the 
State, compelled some such turn in affairs. 

The center of population had been steadily shifting toward the 
upper regions of the State, and more and more steadily the con- 
viction grew that Albany must be the place for the capital. In 
1789 it was felt to be ine\ itably coming in that city itself. A 
v/riter in the Albany (hizetiv, on a certain date of this year, after 



372 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

speaking of the advance of the city between the years 1780 and 
1789, observed : *' And I flatter myself I am not too sanguine 
when I indulge the idea that I shall live to see the day when this 
city, adorned with every necessary public building and other 
improvements, will become the fixed seat of government and of 
the Legislature.'' On November 1, 1797, this body met in New 
York for the last time. It adjourned on November 11 to meet 
at Albau}^ on January 2, 1798, and the fear of 1777, as well as the 
dream of 1789, were realized. Albany thenceforth became the 
capital of the State of New York. 

This change in capitals was a significant episode in the history 
of the State. It told loudly of what had been going on within it, 
of what development had been attained during the century now 
closing. And here is an excellent place to call a halt in cmr nar- 
rative, as we review the progress of that development in various 
parts of the State. About the close of. the century New York 
City had a i)()i)ulation of sixty thousand, which was five times 
the amount of people that were left in it at the evacuation in 
1783. It was fast catching up with Philadelphia, then still the 
largest city in the Ihiion. It w^as adorned by many notable build- 
ings, first among them the Government House, now utilized as a 
Custom House; also the Society Library had a handsome home, 
and the Columbia College buildings stood forth a fine pile, visible 
far off in Jersey, and from the bay and North TJiver. There were 
also many decent-looking churches, although none of any pre- 
tensions had been built since the Revolution. 

In Wall Street there were already two banks, the New York 
and the Manhattan, still to be seen there, although somewhat 
changed in form and location. New York's advantages as a 
seaport had already carried it to the head of the line of cities 
as the queen of American commerce. In 1791 New York 
ranked fourth in tonnage of shipping entering and clearing her 
harbor. On December 31, 1799, the city stood first with a ton- 
nage of 10G,537; Philadelphia coming next with 84,480. On 
October 1, 1799, the exports of the United States were stated to 



THE EMPJKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 373 

hv |78,6G5,522; the item for Pennsylvania was |12,431,967; for 
Maryland, |1G,299,()09; while New York ranked first with |18,- 
719,527. 

Around New York growth and prosperity were also apparent. 
The question whether Staten Island were a part of the State 
or not was still in debate when the one century passed into the 
other. In October, 1794, the people of Richmond reared their 
first courthouse, and its population in 1800 was over four thou- 
sand. Long Island had been nearly robbed of its woods during 
the British occupation, and had otherwise sadly suffered. But 
now it had resumed again something of its old appearance as the 
" pearl of New Netherland." The great city of over a million 
inhabitants, which lately became a borough of New York, was 
as yet only a township, but the portion about the ferry was soon 
to be incorporated as the village of Brooklyn. Here, in June, 
1799, was published its first newspaper, a weekly, and at its 
wharves " Indiamen " had begun to land and unload and load. 

The towns that made up with it the later city, were still in a 
bucolic state. There is on record a trip of Washington, made in 
April, 1790. He traveled in his coach from Tuesday to Satur- 
day, visiting Brooklyn, New Utrecht, Gravesend, Flatlands, Flat- 
bush, thence passing into Queens County. Through the various 
towns of Queens he went to Suffolk, and turning north, after 
visiting Coram and Setauket, he turned westward at Smithtown, 
and so home again through Flushing and Newtown, of Queens. 
He found " the country in a high state of cultivation." 

Westchester County was mainly replete with great manors 
like the Van Cortlandt and Philipse. The Revolution has made 
us acquainted with Tarrytown and Tappan on opposite sides of 
the river, with Haverstraw, and Stony Point, and West Point. 
The latter did not acquire its present character until 1802. New- 
burg was as yet in a primitive state. It had but one street, 
along which were scattered a few old, brown houses. Fishkill- 
on-Hudson, first occupied in 1(188, with tlie (present) Fishkill 
Village and Matteawan back of it, presented only farms. Pough- 



374 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

keepsie, with a gun-foundrj during the Revolution, was organ- 
ized into a village on March 27, 1799. 

Kingston has been mentioned in connection with the framing 
of the State Constitution. It had long ago recovered from the 
Briton's wanton incendiarism. And as we near Albany, we 
find the only other city in the State, besides the old capital and 
the new. This Avas the city of Hudson. Thirty persons from 
Rhode Island brought their families here in 1784. Between that 
year and 178(3 one hundred and fifty houses were built; there 
were wharves and shops, and a population of one thousand five 
hundred, and in 1785 it received incorporation as a city. Ten 
years later it had a newspaper, the Hudson (xazette. Hudson, 
though so far up the river, was a seaport. Twenty-fivi? vessels 
^vere engaged in the West India trade, and the whaling and 
sealing fisheries Avere also industriously pursued. 

North of Albany the dense woods and bold hills that had made 
progress so difticult for the passage of armies to and from 
Canada, had yielded to the peaceful invasion of the husbandman. 
About the year 1798 there was a population in the northern 
counties of from fifty to sixty thousand. Around the forts and 
fortresses that figure in the annals of the various wars of the 
eighteenth century clusters of homes had gathered, so that Fort 
Edward and Fort Anne still occupy their places on our map. 
Saratoga was concentrating its denizens into hamlets; Ballstoii 
was already begun in 17G9, and so was Whitehall, at the south 
ern extremity of Champlain. Yet nothing better illustrates the 
primitive condition of the settlements in these regions than rv 
account of the present city of Troy, as it was in 1789. There had 
been a grant of land here to a Mr. Van der Heyden, of Albany, 
in 1720, and the hamlet that grew up at this point was called 
" Van der Heyden's Ferry ■ ' for many years. In 1789 there were 
twelve dAvelling-houses, and five small stores at Troj^, and it then 
first received this classic appellation. When Rensselaer County 
was cut off from Albany in 1791, Troy was made its county seat. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



375 



wliich must have been a concession to its superior advantages, 
altliougli Lansingburgb was then a close rival. 

Proceeding toward the west along the Mohawk River we come, 
of course, upon the ancient and prosperous village of Schenec- 
tady. Its great event, significant, too, of advancements made in 
material conditions, Avas the erection of Union College. King's 
College (Columbia since 1784) was too far away, and getting 
too inadequate also as a single institution for the growing pop- 
ulation of the State. So on August 26, 1779, with war raging 
nearby, and sure to provoke more of it as conducted against the 
Indians that summer, a petition was addressed to the Legislature 
at Kingston, by Jolm 

Cuyler and eight hun- *!««=^^l C^ 

dred and forty-two 
other persons of Al- 
b a n y and Tryon 
(Montgomery ) Coun- 
ties, and T h o m a s 
Clark and one hun- 
dred and thirty-one 
others of Charlotte 
( Washington ) Coun- 
ty. These, nearly a 

thousand citizens, asked that a corporate body of gentlemen be 
appointed to erect an academy- or college at Schenectady. 

On October 20 the committee to whom this petition was re- 
ferred reported in favor of it, but the war was too severe a drain 
on the pocket and too serious a disturber of peaceful pursuits 
to permit anything effective being done. Twelve years longer the 
subject was left in abeyance, then on December 30, 1791, a 
second petition was laid before the Legislature, stating, as an 
inducement to act, that the Oneidas had given land near Sche- 
nectady for the use of such an institution. On February 1, 1792, 
an adverse reply was received from the Legislature. Perhaps a 
sinister rivalry between towns killed the measure, for on Jan- 




SEAL OF NEW YORK STATE, 1777. 



376 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES, 

uarv 4, 1792, we find tlio citizens of Albany starting a subscrip- 
tion with the object of getting the college established there. 
Another Year elapsed, and then on January 29, 1795, the Regents 
of the University granted a charter for a college at Schenectady, 
The trustees were created a corporate body on February 8, 1795, 

This looked surely like civilization on the Mohawk, and many a 
flourishing village or township along that river above Schenec- 
tady promised patronage for the college nearby, as the hard- 
ships of pioneer life received some relief, and the amenities of 
social intercourse required the cultivation of the professions. 
We notice, as of old, such places as Caughnawaga (Fonda), with 
prosperous Johnstown back of it. Fort Hunter was now a name 
for a peaceful hive of industry, as were Fort Plain and Fort 
Herkimer, with Canajoharie below them, and Palatine Bridge 
and Stone Arabia north of the river, 

German Flats was no longer the westernmost outpost of civi- 
lized settlement. As we shall see shortly, there was made at 
Whitestown, four miles west of Utica, a beginning of invasion 
into the great wilderness stretching far to the west by the ad- 
vance corps of New England immigration. From this far-distant 
hamlet or village regular stage service was maintained with 
Canajoharie as early as 1795. The stage carried the mail and was 
drawn by four horses. It left Whitestown every Monday and 
Thursday at two o'clock in the afternoon, and at dusk reached 
old Fort Schuyler, which was the site of the present Utica, the 
ncu' Fort Schuyler or old Fort Stanwix being the present Rome. 
This was a slow four miles. The journey was here interrupted 
for the night. 

At four o'clock the next morning it was resumed, the stage 
arriving at Canajoharie in the evening. Here passengers that 
had a further destinati(m were transferred to the stage that ran 
up the hills and through the Cherry Valley to Cooperstown, and 
which had come to Canajoharie all the way from Albany. The 
through fare between Canajoharie and Whitestown was two 
dollars, and way passengers were charged four pence per mile. 




WAS 11 1 > (i r ox IRVING^. 



^.-, 



./7 



>o 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 377 

Primitive as these arrangements were, and mortally slow as 
measured by our modern standards, it was immensely in advance 
of tlie manner of travel necessary forty years before, as described 
by the author of " An American Lady." Then the frail canoe 
or the lumbering scow had to be pushed or pulled up against the 
shallow current, and their contents and passengers constantly 
transported around obstructions. The ever-increasing tides of 
immigration, too, helped on with such convenience so far into 
tlie wilderness, would be encouraged to penetrate a step still 
farther. 

And so we enter the leafy precincts of the great " far 
west " of New York State. What had taken place in the way of 
development and settlement within this still almost unbroken 
wilderness when Albany became the capital? Much, and in 
many ways. In a general way settlement of this region had been 
stimulated by the accounts of soldiers, who had taken part in the 
campaign of retaliation under General Sullivan in 1779. They 
had penetrated into the country of the Senecas, who were the 
chief offenders at Cherry Valley, far past Elmira, and almost to 
within sound of Niagara. The reports they gave of the fertility 
of the lands there induced many people from the settlements, 
and especially from New England, to try their fortunes here as 
pioneers. 

Again, there were the military lands, set apart by the Legisla- 
ture in 1782, for the officers and soldiers of the State who had 
served in the army of the United States to the end of the war. 
These lay in the " far west," comprising a tract of one million 
eight hundred thousand acres, the eastern line of which ran 
through the Oneidas' country, and the western along the western 
banks of Seneca Lake. It reached from Lake Ontario on the 
north to a line skirting the southern limit of Seneca Lake. The 
counties formed out of this bit of territory number five: those, 
of Onondaga, Cortland, Cayuga, Tompkins, and Seneca, besides 
the easterly half of Wayne and the southerly half of Oswego. 

Thus, through all that section of the State, settlement was 



378 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

sure to follow, as the soldiers concluded to realize their arrears 
in mone}^ payment, either by exploiting the lands themselves or 
getting cash or rent from those who undertook the experiment 
of developing the wilderness instead of them. In ITSG the Leg- 
islature passed an act providing for the sale of unappropriated 
lands within the State. These amounted to about two-thirds 
of its territory. A board of commissioners was created, consist- 
ing of the governor, the lieutenant-governor, the speaker of the 
Assembly, the secretary of state, the attorney-general, the treas- 
urer, and the auditor, a truly formidable array of officers. 

This sale of lands may have been of some use in encouraging 
settlement, yet it was no unmixed good. The one-third of the 
State's territory already appropriated was mostly in the hands 
of patentees who were not settlers; and the sales now contem- 
plated were for the greater part also made on a large scale. This 
discouraged energetic pioneers, who were not disposed to brave 
hardships in order to make the lands of others profitable, and 
who, therefore, preferred to go through our State without stop- 
ping, helping to make Ohio and States still further west. 

Considering now the record of individual enterprise, as we take 
our first step across the borders of the older settlements, which 
may be said to cease with German Flats in Herkimer County, 
we meet with a worthy pioneer family at Whitestown, four miles 
west of Utica. Utica was not as yet known, but Fort Schuyler 
stood as a nucleus of later things, and the place selected for this 
enterprise rejoiced in the Indian name of Saughdaghquadu. In 
January, 1784, Mr. Hugh White and family emigrated from 
Middletown, Conn., and cleared a place for themselves in the 
wilderness here. 

This was less than two months after the evacuation of New 
York by the British. Thus the settlement was the earliest seizure 
of the new opportunities which the times were opening to State 
and nation; and it was the first in the State so far west. Mr. 
White, whose name is appropriately attached to the localities in 
Oneida County which owed their beginning to him, lived to be 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



379 



known and revered as the patriarch of New England pioneers, 
as he did not die till 1812, at the age of eighty years. Other 
families from New England followed the Whites between 1785 
and 1788, and in the latter year the township of Whitestown was 
organized, and had a population then of two hundred persons. 

Now, in rapid succession, various counties of this central- 
western group are seen to receive their first civilized occupants. 
In 1784 and 1785 two pioneers took up their lonely abode at 







THE NEWS FROM LEXINGTON. 



Seneca Falls in Seneca County. The first family to settle in 
Onondaga County came there in 178G; and Cayuga County wel- 
comed the first home in its wilderness in 1787. In 1788 a few 
families made a beginning of Clinton, again in Oneida County; 
and in 1790 there were a few families of pioneers at Owego, in 
Tioga County. The charm of genius has made much more famil- 
iar the story of a settlement of the previous year. 

It was in 1789 that Judge Cooper, of Burlington, N. J., moved 



380 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

from that steady-going- town on the Delaware River to found a 
family seat in the wilds of New York, carrying with him an 
infant son, whose experiences thus gained were to immortalize 
the Indian lore and the pioneer history of our State. One of the 
famous Leather-stocking Tales, that was issued by James 
Fenimore Cooper, is entitled " The Pioneers," and is a faithful 
picture of life on the frontier. Cooperstown, at the southern ex- 
tremity of Otsego Lake, in Otsego County, commemorates the 
enterprise of the novelist's father. Continuing this rapid sur- 
vey, we may add that, when, in 1796, England gave up the forts 
she had held by the terms of the treaty of peace, as a sort of 
guaranty for our good faith, settlements were at once begun at 
Oswego and Oswegatchie; and in the jenv of the transfer of 
capitals (1798) Lowville, in Lewis County, and a place in Jeffer- 
son County, were settled. 

We now take a big stride to a region still further west, until 
we touch the very utmost boundary toward the setting sun; and 
here, too, we find development had set its hand upon the country 
when Albany became the capital of New York. In the year 1786 
a curious thing happened : Massachusetts became the owner of 
some ten thousand square miles of New York territory. The 
land seemed to be clearly hers as per the terms of the Massachu- 
setts charter, and it was ceiled, this State parting with one- 
(juarter of itself in so doing. The territory consisted of two 
tracts: one was comparatively small, measuring about sixty 
s(iuare miles. It lay within the bounds of the present Broome 
and Tioga counties, and is now divided into some ten or eleven 
townships. It was sold by Massachusetts to a John Brown and 
associates for thirty-three hundred dollars. 

The other tract was much larger, measuring over six millions 
of acres, or nine thousand six hundred square miles. It lay all 
west of a line drawn from Great Sodus Bay, on Lake Ontario, 
to the Pennsylvania boundary. Along the latter its length was 
(me hundred and forty miles; along the lake it was one hundred 
miles; and its average width was eighty-seven miles. ^Fassa- 



THE EMI'IRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 381 

cliiisetts sold this parcel of land for one million dollkrs to Oliver 
Phelps and Nathan Gorman, two of her own citizens. It is to 
bo observed that New York, in ceding- the proprietorship of the 
land, did not for a moment relinquish its sovereignty over the 
tei'ritory and those who should occupy it. 

Two years after his big purchase Oliver Phelps emigrated 
fi'cm Massachusetts with an expedition somewhat commensurate 
Avith the vast tract he had acquired. They selected for their 
first experiment at exploiting the wilderness a delectable region 
at the northern extremity of Canandaigua Lake, the present 
Canandaigua in Ontario County. Up to this time all this 
western and central- western portion of the State had been 
included under Montgomery County. In January, 1789, in view 
of this recent maneuver of Phelps, doubtless, a great slice was 
cut off and erected into a separate county, called Ontario, Mont- 
gomery^ then still including Onondaga County and others of that 
tier north and south. A year later Ontario County (the mother 
of twelve counties) had a population of one thousand and seventy 
souls. In 1789 Geneva was founded, and in 1790 families moved 
into the later Monroe County, and also founded Geneseo, in the 
present Livingston County. 

Phelps and Gorman had undertaken something altogether 
too big for them. They could not pay for all of the land, and a 
part of it was taken back by Massachusetts. This portion then 
underwent two very interesting transfers. In the first place, 
the transaction brings into connection with New York history, 
one of the most remarkable and commendable characters made 
prominent by the events of the Revolution. 

Robert ^lorris, of PhiUidelphia, stands forth pre-eminent as 
the financier of that trying period, which was in no particulars 
more trying than in the article of finance. Some have not hesi- 
latod to ascribe to Washington and Robert Morris, together, the 
main credit of getting the colonies through the struggle for in- 
dependence. Governor Roosevelt speaks of him as " the first in 
the line of American statesmen who have been great in finance; 



382 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

a liiaii whose services to our treasury stand on a par, if not with 
those of Hamilton, at least with those of Gallatin and John 
Sherman.'' 

Bancroft alone does not seem to have so high an opinion of 
the man or of his financial abilities, saying of him that " he con- 
nected the reform of the confederation with boldly speculative 
financial theories," and that " his opinions on the benefit of a 
public debt were extravagant and unsafe." He also says of 
iMoiTis that " with an exact administration of his trust, he com- 
bined, like Necker, zeal for advancing his own fortune." It must 
have been something of this zeal which induced him to purchase 
from Massachusetts part of the Phelps and Gorman tract, which 
occurred in ^Marcli, 1791. Nearly four millions of acres thus 
passed into his possession. 

He did not propose, or else he was not able, to retain them long 
in his own hands. Besides selling a few hundred thousand acres 
to other individuals, or associations, he made a transfer of three 
parcels, counting three million three hundred thousand acres, 
to what is known in history as the Holland Company. This was 
an association of capitalists of Holland, who had doubtless be- 
come interested in America because of the generous loan of thirty 
millions of guilders (.f 12,000,000) which had been negotiated 
with the Dutch Republic, largely because of the sympathy and 
confidence entertained there toward our struggle for freedom. 

The names appearing in the deeds are Herman Le Roy, John 
Linklaen, and Gerrit Boon, but others were united with them 
in this great scheme of territorial proprietorship. Just what 
extent of territory was comprised in this " Holland Purchase," 
becomes at once apparent as we enumerate the eight counties 
which have grown out of it. These are: Allegany, Wyoming-, 
Genesee, Orleans, Cattaraugus, Erie, Niagara, and Chautauqua. 

Settlements here had not much advanced when the century 
ended, but in the year of Albany's elevation, 179S, there was 
already a beginning of Buffalo. It had a double l(\g-house; one 
house that was half frame, half logs; a two-story dwelling of 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



383 



'' bt'wed logs,'' which was the tavern; a log-house with a store 
in it, and three log-houses more. In spite of these diminutive 
proportions, the settlements east of Buffalo were reaching out 
loward it by establishing means of communication. Between 
1700 and 1791 a road had been constructed by the people, without 
any aid from the government of the State, extending all the way 
from WhitestoAvn to Canandaigua. 

This facility for progress through the otherwise unbroken 
wilderness was naturalh^ followed by considerable emigration, 
and settlements grew up apace along its course. As these drew 
still more settlers, 
the road was car- 
ried by slow stages 
beyond Canandai- 
gua, first to the 
Genesee River 
then to the Tona- 
wanda Creek, and 
so on to Buffalo, 
villages and ham- 
lets springing up 
again in its wake. 
The average an- 
nual immigration 

into the State from 1784 to 1800 was one thousand families, so 
that in the latter year seven of these far and central- western 
counties, as then delimited, counted together a population of 
84,875 souls, distributed as follows: Oneida, 22,047; Chenango, 
15,000; Tioga, 0,870; Onondaga, 7,400; Cayuga, 15,871; Steuben, 
1,788, and Ontario, comprising then all the farther west of New 
York, 15,281. 

Now, then, let us compare these figures with some others 
equally tell-tale of actual conditions in the State : Taking the 
counties above Orange and Dutchess, on either side of the river, 
and we find (in 1800) that Ulster County has a population of 




MARINUS WILLETT'S RESIDENCK. 



384 THE EMPIBE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

24,855; Columbia, 35,332; Greene, Delaware, Schoharie, from Umi 
to fifteen thousand each; Eensselaer and Washington, from 
thirty to thirty-five thousand each; Albany County has 34,043, 
its dimensions haying been very much reduced; Saratoga, 33,147; 
Montgomery, 24,483, and Herkimer, 14,479. These figures are 
surely imposing, considering the date, and remembering the 
ravages of war to which these portions of the State had been 
subjected during nearly the whole of the century. And if even 
yet, as compared with the entire population of the State in 1800 
(placed at 589,151), they might not be convincing, it is to be 
remembered that these numbers were only indications of drift 
and tendency, not to be regarded as stationarj^, as exhibitive of 
conditions that were to be for anything but a very brief present. 
Therefore it appears eminently reasonable that the seat of gov- 
ernment for the State should have been shifted, even at that early 
date, to a more central location. 

And what was Albany itself like at this important period in 
its history? In the jear 1780 Albany celebrated the one hun- 
dredth anniversary of its incorporation as a cit}-, and then it took 
account of itself and found that it contained five hundred and 
fifty houses. In this it was in advance of New Haven with four 
hundred, and Hartford with three hundred; but rhiladeli)liia 
had forty-six hundred and New York thirty-five hundred. The 
population of Albany can not have exceeded three thousand in 
that year. In 1789 this had grown to four thousand, and in 1790 
there were from twelve to fourteen hundred houses, with five 
thousand people. In 1794 the city gloried in a bank, and at the 
same time the subject of waterworks was contemplated, wliich 
seems a peculiar, though not necessarily unnatural, juxtaposition 
of ideas. 

Albany had been a postal center for that part of the State 
since 1784. Hither came from New York, \)er sloop or stage, 
the mail for Schenectady and Greenbush. Not only so : but 
hence was forwarded the mail for Vermont and to Cherry Valley. 
And then by a sort of reflex action it was sent back from here to 



THE EAinUE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 385 

Orange and Dutchess counties; but this must have been the New 
Enghmd mail, and not that from the southern parts of the State. 
The mail from New York arrived on Wednesdays and Saturdays; 
and two hours after the arrival of the " up-mail," the " down- 
mail " AA'as dispatched on its southward journey. In 1785 the 
proprietor of a stage-line advertised with reckless promise that 
he would carry passengers down to New York inside of two days. 
This lightning speed was announced in June; but when the au- 
tumn came the prudent Jehu asked for three days to accomplish 
the feat. Twenty-two years later the "Clermont" was to set a new 
record for rapid traveling. Such was the little city nestling 
against the hills overlooking the Hudson, now invested with the 
dignity of being the capital of one of America's greatest com- 
monwealths. 

Albany, then, as the capital of the State in 1798, marks an 
epoch in the history of New York. It indicates the stage of de- 
velopment which had been reached at the end of the eighteenth 
century, the second century of the State's existence as a precinct 
of civilized human effort. Great things had been attained during 
this century. Not only had the population been nearly doubled 
since 1700; but now everywhere throughout its borders the un- 
productive wilderness was bending before the skill and energy 
of men to make it bring forth wealth from the soil that had been 
choked or hidden. And as the result of independence, the fruit of 
this same century, the flush of young nationhood, was upon 
this State as upon others of the Union. This lent intensity and 
hope to every endeavor, and sweetened hardships with the prom- 
ise of the future. 

That this future was big with unheard of things, was already 
felt, as the dawn of the nineteenth century reddened the horizon. 
What these things could be was not even dreamed. It could 
hardly have been then surmised that the advances made in many 
material conditions during the century soon to open would 
init the generations at its close farther from the men of 1798 or 
1800 than the men of 1798 or 1800 were from the men of Richard 



386 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

the Lion-liearted's days, or of the days of the good King Alfred. 
To that third century of our State's history we now eagerly 
turn. 




GARDINER ARMS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

rOLlTlCAL FERMENTS FOLLOWING INDEPENDENCE. 



HE eighteenth century left to our State and the other 
States a legacy of glory. The nineteenth century was 
destined to transmute the glory into the most splendid 
material benefit. The wildest dreams of prosperity 
and progress which may have been based on the political ad- 
vantages gained, the sober realities of the succeeding decades 
did actuality put to the blush for not having been extravagant 
enough to come up with them. And this nation was to show the 
way of progress to the world. It had already solved the problem 
of popular libertj^ — the solution of Avhich in France had proved 
so dismal a failure — by establishing firmly and practically a 
government of the people, by the people, and for the people. 

But independence, the boon of the eighteenth century, drew 
after it political ferments as the inheritance of the nineteenth, 
and these attained considerable proportion during the first 
decade. To the dispassionate and philosophical observer these 
can not be altogether pleasant to contemplate, yet they seem 
inevitable under the actual conditions of human life. It is in- 
separable from free governments that there should be parties 
on different aspects of governmental policy. But all too soon 
the issue is joined, not on questions of policy, but on questions of 
personality — personal interests on the one hand, personal antag- 
onisms on the other. 

Certain men aspire to be leaders and to secure positions in 
the State, to be got by the aid of votes — majorities. Unhap- 
pily, these are not usually obtained by appeals to the reason; 



388 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



for this requires thinking, and few men want to thiulv. Follow- 
ers are multiplied by appeals to passion: for it is so much easier 
to feel than to think. And so politics becomes a game: You win, 
or I win; who can draw the most people after him? The people 
are gained, not by arguing some abstract question, but by direct- 
ing attention to men — by pointing at them as the holders of the 
opinions you combat, which makes them objects of suspicion, 
baneful plotters, secret destroyers of the republic or the State. 
This works like a charm in multiplying your adherents. 

And not to be too cynical in 
our Judgment, we must admit 
that often what is started as a 
game, as a hue and cry, be- 
comes a sincere conviction with 
most of the leaders who raise 
the hue and crj. They are 
really honest in denouncing 
their political opponents as 
enemies of the public or the 
republic. Thus party violence 
comes to have a sanction as a 
pseudo-patriotism, a very sad 
phase to the philosophical ob- 
server. For now there will 
scarce be any bounds set to its 
virulence or mischief, for even conscience (yes, and religion) will 
approve and encourage the worst violations of charity. Unfair- 
ness, misrepresentation, reach that awful state when they are 
not regarded as a crime but as a duty. 

Parties may be inevitable. Nay, the philosopher may even 
concede that a hot and hateful partisanship may conduce toward 
the evolution of some of the latent forces of a self-governing 
people; in "the heat and the forge" of conflict, unsuspected, 
liidden powers or defects of the Constitution may be brought to 
the surface. Nevertheless, even the man who is not blind to some 




GEN. ISRAEL PUTNAM. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 389 

of these practical effects can not see without sadness some other 
effects equally patent. What can be more humiliating to the lover 
of America, to the devoted advocate of free governments, than 
to observe the abuses which led to such exhibitions of spite and 
injustice as disgraced the very first administration? Who can 
read without a blush of shame for his country and his kind, the 
attacks on the unsullied Washington, led by that intolerable 
creature Freneau, who was kept in the pay of the Government 
by Jefferson for doing that indescribably dirty work? Who can 
observe without a qualm of pain men in every State, who had 
stood shoulder to shoulder on the battlefields of the Revolution, 
thinking the worst of each other when the Republic was estab- 
lished, and pointing the finger of suspicion and hostility at each 
other, so that multitudes of the unthinking crowd might suspect 
them and hate them as they did? 

That unhappy picture was presented in no less striking colors 
in New York than elsewhere, as was abundantly shown by the 
exciting incident that marked the very opening weeks of the 
nineteenth century. Perhaps it will cause a smile of incredulity 
a hundred years from now that people and press in 1899 were 
seriously discussing whether the first year of the new century 
soon to open were to be counted as 1900 or 1901. It does not 
appear that people w^ere so uncertain of their arithmetic or their 
phraseology a hundred years ago, and they, no less than right- 
minded persons to-day, counted 1801 as the beginning of our 
momentous century. 

And on January 1 of that year, the people of the United States 
were in a tremendous state of suspense as to what was to become 
of the office of President; whether it was to be the mere to}^ 
of accident, or the place where they could put the man of their 
choice. In the autumn of 1800 there had been a Presidential 
election, in the old-fashioned way, as originally provided by the 
Constitution. That is, electors had been duly t'hosen in each 
State, and these electoral colleges had met together on December 
4, 1800. At this time the electors cast their votes, not as mere 



390 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

tools and figureheads of a party, but as individuals with brains 
and the power of choice, which it was deemed safer for them to 
exercise than for the crowd at large. Chosing then and voting as 
real electors for the people, a curious and puzzling result was 
obtained. The Federalist candidates, John Adams (now Pres- 
ident) and Charles C. Pinckney, secured 65 and 64 votes, respect- 
ively; while John Jay, also a Federalist, and now governor of 
New York, with no desire whatever to run for public office, had 
been given just one vote by some ardent but not very wise 
admirer among the electors. 

The anti-Federalists, now called Republicans, had nominated 
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, with the very clearly under- 
stood design that Jefferson should be their President and Burr 
their Vice-President. But these two candidates received exactly 
the same number of electoral votes — 73. A plurality vote 
counted in the college, and if either man had had the 73 he would 
have been President. Since both had that number, and Burr 
was not willing to defer to the plain desire or intent of his party 
that he should be the incumbent of the secondary office, the tie 
vote stood in the way of the declaration of either man as Pres- 
ident, and the work of election was thrown into the hands of 
the House of Representatives. 

By the provision of the Constitution the results of the voting 
of the Presidential electors would officially be made known to 
Congress on the second Wednesday of February, 1801. As the 
electors finished their labors about Christmas, it was not till 
January 1, 1801, that it was known from one end of the Union 
to the other that no President had been elected, that the 
Federalists had lost the election, and that the two Republicans 
grimly held to the chance of being made Chief Magistrate of the 
Nation. It was a combination of details full of anxiety and ex- 
citement. Nor was the share of New York in the suspense by any 
means the least. Aaron Burr was her Senator in Congress, and 
thus she was now the nearest to having the Presidency that she 
came for many a year thereafter. Yet the circumstances of the 



THE EMPIRE HTATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 391 

case forbid us to contemplate that fact with much pride or 
satisfaction. 

For the surprising figures reached by the electors' votes, lead 
us to ask some questions. Why was the Federalist vote divided 
between Adams and Pinckuey, instead of being concentrated on 
Adams? Because patriot Adams was up in arms against patriot 
Hamilton, because neither quite trusted the other, or because one 
was jealous of the power of the other. For this reason Adams 
had refused to appoint riamilton first major-general when war 
with France seemed imminent, until Washington made his own 
acceptance of the chief command dependent on that appoint- 
ment. And for this noble reason, too, supported by this 
attempted slight, Hamilton exerted his influence to draw votes 
from Adams for Pinckney, with the result that the Federalist 
party lost the Presidency and soon came to utter ruin. If 
patriots thus stood opposed to each other within the same party, 
what could be expected of them when they stood in antagonism 
on vital questions of government? 

Another question arising out of the showing of the votes of 
the electoral college is of still greater interest to New York. 
How was it that Aaron Burr stood over against the Colossus 
Jefferson, and not only presumed to measure himself with that 
idol of the Republicans, or anti-Federalists, but contrived to 
come out an exact equal in the process? We might almost say, 
so far as events had gone thus far: We know Jefferson, but who 
is this man Burr? Burr had distinguished himself in the army 
life of the Revolution by two or three praiseworthy acts. He 
had carried General Montgomery's mortally wounded form at 
(Quebec; he had let Putnam's army out of its trap in New York 
City, along the west side of ^Manhattan Island, while Howe was 
landing and marching down on the east side. He had made a 
dash at a Tory stronghold near West Farms, in Westchester 
County, and captured it, when Howe was trying to get into the 
rear of Washington on the way to White Plains. 

Before the \^•a^ was quite over Burr left the army, studied law 



392 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



at Albany, and began its practice in New York City immediateh^ 
after its evacuation. In ]7St he was chosen a member of the 
Assembly, and his talents as a speaker and debater became 
soon apparent. These were recoo-nized by the Leoislature in 
1791, when he was elected United States Senator. This was 
already a sign of party disaffection. In 1789 General Philip 
Schnyler and linfns King were elected to the Senate of the 
United States from New York. No one objected to Schuyler 
being thus honored, but the members of the great New York 
families saw no renson why they should be passed over for a 

man who had settled among them 
as a stranger from New England. 
Hamilton insisted upon his nomina- 
lion against the protests of the 
Livingston following, who thought 
that the chancellor was entitled to 
the honor, and also that Hamilton 
should have been sufficiently satis- 
fied with the appointment of his 
father-in-law. 

Hamilton's tact was never too 
conspicuous, and it failed him here. 
He foolishly threw away a consider- 
able support in his own State, where 
the Federalists needed all the strength they could hold together. 
Perhaps he thought the Federalist convictions of the Livingstons 
were proof against the loss of position or office. But, alas! the 
old acquisitiveness of the original Robert was still alive among 
them, and from the hour of this disappointment the Livingston 
family and following became anti-Federalist or Republican. 
Senator Schuyler drew the lot for the two-year term, which was 
necessitated by the beginning of the Senate as a body, only part 
of whose members were to be changed every two years, while the 
full term finally would be six years for each member. Hence 
a new senator was to be elected in 1791, and the Livingstons 




MAJOR-GEN. ALEXANDER M'DOU- 
GALL, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE 
NEW YORK STATE SOCIETY OF THE 
CINCINNATI. 



THE EMPlllE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 393 

combined with the inveterate anti-Federalist Clintonians, to 
defeat Hamilton's relative. The country might suffer from the 
supplanting of so splendid a character as Schuyler by a young 
and untried man, whose subsequent career proved hurtful to it 
in many ways; but what was country compared to family inter- 
ests and party triumph, to these patriots who had recently bled 
to make it their own? 

Aaron Burr made himself very useful to the anti-Federalists 
in New York. He sustained the counting-out of Jay in 1792, and 
by his personal magnetism and the methods of the practical 
politician, wherein not too much scrupulousness and nicety of 
honor needed to be observed. Burr succeeded in turning the tides 
of following in the lower Federalist regions of New York State. 
It was due to him that in 1798 the Republicans had a majority 
of twenty-eight in the Assembly, while the Federalists could 
count on a majority of but eight in the Senate. The Legislature 
as a whole was thus solid for the measures or the men that 
would antagonize the Federalist policy. Besides this meritorious 
party-work in the State, to Burr belonged the credit of a master- 
stroke which turned the tide in favor of the Republicans in the 
Presidential contest of 1800. 

As if fate deplored and was determined to punish the deterio 
ration of patriots into partisans, the dislike of Hamilton for 
Adams let him into a fatal mistake. He wrote a letter to Adams 
severely criticising his public conduct. It was intended for 
private circulation among Federalists only, to turn votes from 
Adams and concentrate them on Pinckney. But it was playing 
with dangerous weapons. The astute and unscrupulous coterie 
of whom Burr was the moving spirit, learned of the paper, and 
had no hesitation in corrupting the printer from his trust. They 
secured the proofsheets, reprinted the severe diatribe of one 
Federalist against another, spreading confusion and dismay 
among the ranks of the President's party, with the result that 
the votes of the electors gave an almost equal number to Adams 



394 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

and Pinckney, but were unable to reach a figure that woukl 
have elected either. 

It is not so much to be wondered at that Aaron Burr's tactics 
should have won him many admirers, and that a goodly number 
of the electors should have deemed him w^orthy of a second place 
on the Presidential ticket. But they had not calculated that the 
Federalists would be able to poll so many votes for their two 
candidates that Jefferson's vote would come down to the same 
figure up to which Burr's had risen. And hence there happened 
to be that vexatious tie, which, in its turn, brought dismay to 
the Republicans. 

It would have been more loyal to the party he had served so 
well, if Burr had consented to take the second place. But doubt- 
less Burr was in politics for himself quite as much as for the 
party; and though he should have felt the same deference toward 
the great leader that others felt, perhaps it is not in reason to 
expect any man to let the Presidency slip out of his grasp when 
he had such a hold on it as this. Still the tenacity of Burr caused 
disgust among his own party men, and left them in distressing 
uncertainty about Jefferson. This feature of the situation de- 
lighted the discomfited Federalists, and they hoped to balk their 
opponents of their dearest wish by giving them as President the 
lesser man, whom they did not want. Therefore the country 
waited in painful suspense through those first six weeks of the 
nineteenth century, until, on February 11, the House of Repre- 
sentatives should vote on the candidate. 

But now began another period of excitement and suspense. 
Sixteen States were now in the Union, and their delegations in 
the House voted as units; a majority of these was needed to elect. 
On the first ballot eight States voted for Jefferson, six for Burr, 
while Vermont and Maryland could cast no vote, because of a 
" tie " in their number. There was therefore no election. Six more 
ballots in rapid succession did not change the result. A recess 
of an hour was taken, and eight fruitless ballots followed this. 
Thus the suspense was prolonged during five anxious davs. The 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 395 

passions of men were at white heat. " Federalists were plainly 
told," says one painstaking historian, " that if Aaron Burr were 
made President, the Republicans would arm, march to Washing- 
ton, depose the usurper, and put Jefferson in his place." 

The poor accommodations of the primitive capital were taxed 
to their utmost to entertain the crowds of people that flocked to 
the scene of the contest. " The Federalists," says Professor 
Morse, " had the power, by holding steadily together, to prevent 
any election whatever. Momentous as such a political crime 
would be, nevertheless many influential Federalists soon showed 
themselves sufticiently embittered to contemplate it." It was 
freely charged that Burr was making bargains with these Fed- 
eralists. But, badly as he was compromising his future by the 
disloyal stand he was occupying, he did not make the situation 
any worse by any such deliberate treachery to Jefferson; the 
latter fully cleared him from all such blame in later days. 

The deadlock was finally broken on Monday, February 16, 
when thirty-six ballots had been taken. In the Maryland and 
Vermont delegations those who had thus far voted for Burr 
so as to make a tie, voted blanks, so that these States cast a 
vote each for Jefferson. At the same time the one delegate from 
Delaware, James A. Bayard, although a Federalist, also cast his 
vote for Jefferson, and the election of the latter was assured, 
placing Burr in the place where he belonged. This result was 
due to the patriotism that survived in the breast of Ilamilton 
and made him rise superior to partisanship. lie had had severe 
conflicts with Jefferson, and on party lines they could have been 
no more diametrically opposed than they were. But Ilamilton 
knew Burr, and knew that he was not so well to be trusted 
with the fortunes of the country as Jefferson. Hence he labored 
to persuade the Federalists in Congress to desist from their des- 
perate purpose of either making the election go by default or 
of giving Burr their votes; and finally they ^delded to the voice of 
reason and patriotism. A sad reward was in store for Ilamilton 
for this act. 



396 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



During this same opening year of the nineteenth century, 
ferments had also marked and marred the fair field of State 
politics. The second term of Governor John Jay came to an end 
in 1801. He had been offered a renomination, but he was tired 
of politics — perhaps of politics as it had now grown to be. 
" The period is now nearly arrived," he said, " at which I have 
for many years intended to retire from the cares of public life." 
It was not so with George Clinton, who had been elected gov- 
ernor six successive times up to the year 1795. He had then 
discreetly declined the nomination, because he foresaw that the 
people were in a mood to revenge the infamous counting-out of 

1792. But now he accepted a renom- 
ination, for he shrewdly foresaw vic- 
tory; which, indeed, he secured, and 
took his seat for the seventh time in 
1801. Jay then finally withdrew from 
public life. President Adams had 
offered to appoint him again to his 
former place of Chief Justice of the 
United States Supreme Court. But 
even this could not tempt him to 
depart from his cherished purpose. 
He therefore retired to his country 
I'ouse at Bedford, in Westchester 
County, where, in less than a year, grief overwhelmed him in 
the death of his beautiful and accomplished wife, but where, 
after this blow, he lived in peace and happiness until 1829. 

The first matter of importance that claimed Governor Clin- 
ton's attention was the meeting of a constitutional convention, 
in this same year 1801, for the purpose of determining some 
questions as to the Council of Appointment. This, as we saw, 
was a feature of the Constitution of the State of New York, 
created in order to put a check upon the governor, and grew 
out of the apprehension lest experiences under colonial governors 
might be repeated under a free government. It was composed 




BENEDICT ARNOLD. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 397 

of the i^overuor aud four senators. AVliile it was intended to 
divide responsibility with the governor, and to check any ten- 
dency toward improper nominations to office, yet the intention 
was that it should be to him an aid rather than a hindrance. 

But it was admirably adapted to be the latter in the case of 
a governor and a legislature of opposite parties. Such happened 
to be the case in 1798, as we saw, thanks to Burr's manipulations, 
wlio liimself was returned to the Assembly, having served his 
six years in the United States Senate. Jay was opposed to any- 
thing like a spoils system, and would not disturb men in office 
because of their political affiliations. The Clintons and Living- 
stons were of a different mind; and as the governor would not 
heed their wishes to make room for their friends, they refused to 
ratify his nominations for offices that needed to be filled. There 
was but one Federalist in the council to vote with the governor, 
and so the majority of three could " hold up " his nominations 
effectively. 

The closing months of Jay's term were filled with the annoy- 
ances of this petty and unworthy squabble. On February 11, 
1801 (the very clay that the momentous balloting began at Wash- 
ington), the governor nominated a sheriff for Dutchess County. 
He was rejected, and seven subsequent names presented met 
with the same fate. He then nominated a man of the majority's 
party, and he was at once confirmed. On February 24 the same 
child's play went on over nominations for sheriff's of Schoharie 
and Orange counties, aud nothing was accomplished. 

Then a member of the council made a nomination, which the 
governor ignored, as this was an impudent innovation, destruct- 
ive of an important function of the executive power. But the 
majority claimed this new interpretation of the Constitution as a 
right, and Jay referred it to the Legislature, which declined to 
act on a constitutional question. It was then referred to the 
Supreme Court and the chancellor, who declined to give a de- 
cision on an " extra-judicial " point. Hence on April G, 1801, 
the Legislature passed an act, calling a constitutional conven- 



398 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

tion to decide the (iiiestion whether the Council of Appointment 
had a concurrent power of nomination with the governor. 

Pending the decision Governor Jay did not again call the 
council together during the brief remainder of his term. But no 
sooner had Clinton retaken his old seat than the council was sum- 
moned and met in August. Now things went exactly as the par- 
tisans wanted. De Witt Clinton, his nephew, was a member, and 
so was Ambrose Spencer, who had married a Livingston. Two 
months before the convention met, the council and governor 
(who simpl}^ ignored the one Federalist member) made a clean 
sweef> of their opponents out of the positions they held. Edward 
Livingston, brother of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, was 
made mayor of New York; and the secretary of state was re- 
moved to make room for a brother-in-law. The Federalist con- 
troller was removed, and likewise the clerk and recorder of 
New York City. And the minor offices suffered like renovations. 

In short, this was the dawn in America of the baneful " spoils 
s^^stem," and New York has to bear the disgrace of the initiation 
of that main blot on the American republic, and the one serious 
threat to its existence or continuance. " The proceedings of this 
Council of 1801," says Edward M. Shepard, himself a Democrat, 
'' have profoundly affected the politics of New York to this day. 
Few political bodies in America have exercised as serious and 
lasting an influence upon the political habits of the nation." 
De Witt Clinton and Ambrose Spencer were alone responsible for 
it. Even Governor Clinton entered a protest, but not so effective 
a one as to stop the proceedings. And these same initiators of 
the spoils system had complete control of the constitutional 
convention. 

It met on October 13, 1801, and unanimously sustained the 
contention of the majority of the council, that they had the right 
to nominate as well as the governor. It left the executive power 
of the governor sadly shorn, but the place-hunters and place- 
dealers needed that state of things for their plans. This con- 
vention also fixed the number of State senators at thirty-two, 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 399 

which was retained nearly up to the present day, with a popula- 
tion increasing sixfold. The members of the Assembly were to 
number one hundred, with a proportional increase after each 
census. Aaron Burr was president of the convention, and not 
only De Witt Clinton, but also Daniel D. Tompkins, both subse- 
quently governors, were members. It adjourned on October 27. 

Aaron Burr's evident intention to secure the Presidency if he 
could, at the expense of Jefferson, had thoroughly discredited 
him with his own party. At the close of Jefferson's first term he 
was enthusiastically nominated for a second; but Burr was not 
even mentioned. George Clinton, the oft-elected governor of 
New York, was placed on the ticket for Vice-President, and 
transferred his sphere of influence from the State to the Nation, 
destined to go through more than one re-election to this more 
exalted office also. There was thus a new governor to be elected 
for New York, and Burr here sought his chance for rehabilitation 
with his party. The Clintonians and Livingstonians were too 
strong for him, however, and they nominated Colonel Morgan 
Lewis, a brother-in-law of ex-Chancellor Livingston. 

Barr then hoped to get the indorsement of the Federalists, but 
they nominated John Lansing, the deserter from the constitu- 
tional convention, but now chancellor in Livingston's place, who 
had been appointed minister to France by President Jefferson. 
Perhaps Lansing saw the incongruity of posing as Federalist 
candidate, or else the hopelessness of the election induced him 
to decline to run. Then Burr, as a last resort, named himself as 
an independent candidate, hoping to draw to himself those Re- 
publicans who were not the friends or favorites of the Clinton- 
Livingston faction, and all of the Federalists who were now 
without a candidate of their own. But disappointment again 
was in store for Burr. Hamilton again warned the Federalists 
against Burr, and recommended them to support Morgan Lewis, 
their political enemy, as a more trustworthy man. As a con- 
sequence, Morgan Lewis became the next governor of New York, 
in 1804. 



400 



THE EMPIKE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 



Moroan Lewis was born in New York City on October IG, 1754. 
His father Avas Francis Lewis, one of the signers of tlie Declara- 
tion of Independence, wlio had settled as a merchant in New 
Yorl: in 1735, and, although of English birth, was devotedly 
attached to the patriot cause. Having a country-seat at White- 
stone, on Long Island, ^Ir. LeAvis moved his family there in 1770, 
when New York was threatened; but after the battle of Long 
Island, the British took particular pleasure in devastating his 
property, and in imprisoning and maltreating ^Mrs. Lewis to such 
an extent that she died from the effects soon after being restored 
to her husband. ^lorgan Lewis graduated from Columbia 

(King's) College in 1773, 
whereupon he gave him- 
self to the study of laAV 
in John Jay's ofifice. 
The war drew him into 
the army, like so manj^ 
other y o u n g m e n o f 
promise and of spirit, 
a n d h e distinguished 
himself at the fl r s t 
battle of Saratoga and 
at GermantoAvn. When 
peace returned, Avith its 
o]>enings to public life, 
Ave find him occupying 
several prominent posi- 
tions. 

He was elected to the 
S t a t e Legislature in 
1784, became successiA^ely attorney-general of the State, one of 
the judges of its Supreme Court, and in 1801 was chief justice. 
He had marric-«l a sister of Chancellor Livingston, and had faith- 
fully followed that family when it turned from Hamilton and 
Federalism to Clinton, Ivepublicanism, and office. In 1804 he 




KING GEOKGE III. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THKEE CENTURIES. 401 

was their candidate for governor, as we saw, to succeed George 
Clinton. He was not re-elected in 1807, but in 1810 was made 
State senator. During the War of 1812 he entered the army 
again, and attained the rank of major-general in 1813. He cap- 
tured Fort George, and was in command at Sackett's Harbor. In 
1815 he retired from public life. He was generous to those de- 
pendent on him, and at one time remitted the arrears of rent to 
those occupying his estates, so that he escaped the bitterness of 
attack which other landlords suffered during the anti-rent 
troubles. He died in New York in April, 1844, at the extraor- 
dinary age of ninety years. 

When Aaron Burr realized that he had again been defeated 
and disappointed in his ambition by the intervention of Ham- 
ilton, he was determined to seek his life. He was now left with- 
out any ground to stand on, politically, either in the Nation or 
in his own State, and he became desperate. His temperament 
was unscrupulous, almost without serious moral restraint, and 
as such the man is a problem in heredity. His father was the 
Kev. Aaron Burr, widely respected as a godly minister, as well 
as a talented orator, and of great reputation for learning. He 
was elected president of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, 
and here the younger Burr graduated. His mother was the 
choicest flower of a choice family, the daughter of that revered 
and saintly moral philosopher and profound theologian, the 
pride of New England, the Kev. Jonathan Edwards. Both these 
parents died while Burr was still an infant of a few years, and 
somehow he received a moral or religious twist in his bringing 
up, which unbalanced his character. 

Burr could not stoop to be a murderer or midnight assassin. 
His moral unsoundness did not go such lengths as that. He had 
a due regard to the restraints and opinions of society, nor was 
he ambitious to become acquainted with the common hangman. 
But, unfortunately, in those days society rather encouraged one 
murderous means of satisfying revenge, the duel. " With cold 
deliberation," says Senator Lodge, " he set about forcing a 



4:02 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

quarrel." Occasion for a quarrel was readily found, after an 
election contest, yet even in this Burr was not straightforward, 
and proceeded to extremities without having a clear case. It 
was while Hamilton was at Albany on legal business that he had 
dissuaded the Federalists from supporting Burr, at a caucus held 
in a tavern or hotel there. Two adherents of Burr had surrep- 
titiously introduced themselves into an adjoining apartment, and 
naturally overheard some things not complimentary to their 
chief. But this base business was too low even for Burr's use 
in the present instance. 

He turned therefore to something else. A letter was printed 
in the newspapers of the day, making the statement that Ham- 
ilton had discouraged the Federalists from voting for Burr, 
adding: "General Hamilton and Judge Kent have declared in 
substance that they looked upon Mr. Burr to be a dangerous man, 
and one who ought not to be trusted with the reins of govern- 
ment." This was sufficiently harmless language for a political 
campaign. But there was another sentence more to Burr's pur- 
pose, and he seized on that: " I could detail to you a still more 
despicable opinion which General Hamilton has expressed of 
Mr. Burr." This sentence he underscored, and sent the extract 
to Hamilton, demanding an explanation or satisfaction. 

The writer of this mischief-making letter was a Dr. Cooper, 
who had been with Hamilton at the private table of a mutual 
friend, where these remarks were alleged to have been made. 
Hamilton was not responsible for the odious comparison in- 
stituted by Dr. Cooper between one remark of his and another. 
Again, if neither he nor Dr. Cooper could recall the exact lan- 
guage of the more heinous utterance, there was nothing to be 
ex])lained, and no ground for calling out anyone to a duel. The 
groundlessness and irrelevance of Burr's contention were pointed 
out by Hamilton. " How shall I annex any precise idea to lan- 
guage so indefinite? " he asked. " How could you be sure that 
even this opinion [the ' more despicable ' one] had exceeded the 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN TIIUEE CENTURIES. 403 

bounds which you would yourself deem admissible between 
political opponents? " 

If Burr had had any other than a murderous intent, he would 
have admitted the force of these considerations. His " honor/' 
too, should have been fully satisfied by the reply that Hamilton 
authorized his second to transmit: '■'■ He would be able to answer 
consistently with his honor and the truth, in substance, that the 
conversation to which Dr. Cooper alluded, turned wholly on 
political topics, and did not attribute to Colonel Burr any in- 
stance of dishonorable conduct, nor relate to his private char- 
acter." What more could Burr Itave wished? Could Hamilton 
have gone further to take away the cause for a quarrel? 

But the unhappy feature of this whole affair is that Burr did 
not really wish for an explanation. We have been at some paius 
to show this, that it ma}^ illustrate the fierceness of personal 
hatred to which the political ferments early in the history of 
State and Republic led. In the account of this duel only the 
fatal hour is usually dwelt on with most particularity. It is a 
familiar story how the two distinguished men — one the founder 
of the Nation's financial and governmental integrity and pros- 
perity, the other at that time the Vice-President of the United 
States — met on July 11, 1804, on the duelling-ground at 
Weehawken, opposite Manhattan Island, on the New Jersey 
shore, and sheltered from observation and interruption by the 
wall of the Palisades towering above them; how Hamilton, him- 
self refusing to shoot, fell mortally wounded at Burr's first fire; 
how he died the next afternoon, to the grief of a stricken wife 
and young family, and to the inextinguishable horror and in- 
dignation of a whole people. It was a striking commentary on 
the reprehensible antagonisms to which men had permitted 
themselves to be excited by differences of opinion perfectly war- 
rantable, but which need not have involved passionate personal 
hatred. 

The duel is of lamentable interest to New York State as ending 
the careers of two of her brightest sons, the one in violent death, 



404 



THE EMTIUE STATE IN THREE CENTUMES. 



the other iu obloquy aud hopeless obscurity. With Hamilton out 
of the way, Burr had thought to have a clear course to all his 
ambitions. In fact, it killed him politically as dead as it killed 
Ills opponent physically. For a moment he made himself the 
hero of a fantastic and romantic scheme. But this attempt only 
heaped the greater distrust and aversion upon him. He went 
back first of all from the duel to his chair as Vice-President of 
the United States, to preside over the Senate for another winter. 
He had to escape from New York under cover of the night, with 
an indictment for manslaughter hanging over him. In Wash- 
ington the law could not reach him in his official position. 

When Jefferson's second administration began, on March 4, 
1805, Burr had to give way to George Clinton; and then the 
Nation heard u(»t of him till it was startled by a wild design of 

his, which seemed to aim 
at setting up an independ- 
ent empire in the South- 
west, in the territory lately 
I)urchased from France. 
It involved mysterious 
[dottiugs, the impress- 
m e n t of volunteers in 
Eastern s e a p o r t s , the 
passing of vessels 
manned and armed in ap- 
proved melo d r a m a t i c 
fashicm, down the Ohio and the Mississippi. There were con- 
ferences of adventurous spirits on an island past which flowed 
the swift current of a great Western river; where one Blenner- 
hasset occupied a fine mansion, and princely hospitality was 
dispensed at the hands of his beautiful wife. 

For some time these movements, so much more of a character 
to adorn the pages of a novel than to alarm the existence of a 
nation, were ignored by the authorities. But, after awhile, 
clamors arose that designs were formulated acrainst the iuteg- 




ULD BLUE BELL TAVERN. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 405 

rity of the Republic, and that the schemers had some reason to 
expect the aid of olKicers of the ITnited States army. Then, by 
a few viiiorous measures, tlie bubble was soon pricked, and 
Aaron Burr, the prime promoter of the even yet mysterious at- 
tempt, was arrested and tried for treason. 

Hamilton's opposition to Burr liad always been based on the 
suspicion that he was capable of disrupting the Union to advance 
his own schemes of personal ambition; that he could foment and 
lead a secession, if he could win glory and power by it. And 
secession was not an idle and impossible dream, either in 1801 
or in 1804. Even to the length of tearing the country asunder 
were men prepared to go to secure party ends. Secession was 
not a dream, but it was a fact contemplated and needing but 
some bold spirits to try it on. Hence Hamilton and Kent felt the 
danger of Burr's ascendancy; that he was not to be trusted. 
As Senator Lodge says: '' He sought the governorship of New 
York, behind which was the possibility of a northern confed- 
eracy and presidency, a phantom evoked by the murmurs of seces- 
sion now heard among NeAv England leaders." 

The suspicion and fear of Hamilton were amply justified by 
these machinations of Burr in the Soutlnvest. Yet, when he was 
finally brought to trial for high treason at Bichmond, in 1806, the 
result of seven weeks of counter-pleading was the Scotch verdict, 
" Not proved." Nevertheless, Burr was a ruined and discredited 
man. He went to Europe in 1807, spent six years there in sad 
penury and obscurity, from which his splendid talents and fas- 
cinating manners could not relieve him, and returned to America 
in 1813, For twenty-three years longer he continued the hard 
struggle of life, shunned by society, sustained by a little law 
business, and finally, in 1830, he died on Staten Island at a small 
hotel, the St. James, at Port Bichmond, which is still standing. 
He was then eighty years of age. 

Before passing on to that event of supreme interest which 
shall occupy us in the next chapter, it will not be out of place in 
such a historv as this to notice the establishment of the famous 



406 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

Military Academy of the United States on the soil of our State, 
at West Point, in Orange County. On September 10, 1790, the 
United States acquired here by purchase a tract of over two 
thousand acres. It had been abundantly shown by the War of 
the Revolution that the armies of the Republic needed well- 
trained officers to make the men under them efficient. Washing- 
ton had nothing but an enthusiastic rabble to win the battles of 
freedom with at the first. The militia had been in existence in 
all the colonies, but when these regiments appeared before the 
commander-in-chief, and were assigned to duty by him, they were 
apt to act the part of political clubs rather than that of regiments 
under strict discipline. They would mount guard or perform 
evolutions if they pleased; otherwise not, so that Washington 
dismissed some of them in a ver^^ great hurry. 

So greatly needed was military education that General Knox 
urged the establishment of a school as early as 1776. A military 
school was practically initiated at the instance of Washington in 
1794. A corps of engineers and one of artillerists was stationed 
at West Point, and lessons were given to the members in their 
departments. The sessions were held in a building called the 
Old Provost. This was burned in 1796, and the school was sus- 
pended until 1801. West Point came to be selected for the 
famous academy for a very interesting reason. It was always 
recognized as "' the key to the United States." We have pointed 
out the recognition of that fact in the chapter on the Revolution; 
and that for this reason Arnold and Clinton fixed on it as the 
place to be surrendered by his act of treason. It was therefore 
recommended that West Point should always be kept as a post 
in a defensible condition, in the times of peace as well as of war. 
And it was argued that with but little additional expense there 
could be instituted an academy for the training of officers. 

By an act of Congress, in March, 1802, the Academy was for- 
mally established. Two corps were stationed at West Point, as 
before: one of artillerists, to which forty cadets were attached, 
and one of engineers, with ten cadets. The senior officer of these 



THE EMPIKE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 



407 



troops was to act as superintendent. The secretary of war was 
to procure books, implements, and apparatus. Various officers 
were to do the work of instructors, and in 1803 the President was 
authorized to appoint a teacher of French and drawing. Major 
(later Colonel) of Engineers Jonathan Williams, was the first 
superintendent. In this feeble and tentative way began the work 
of the sphmdid institution, which is well worthy the pride of 
the whole natioii, 




HICKS ARMS 



SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER V. 

A VIEW OF SOME OF THE AMENITIES OF COLONIAL LIFE AT THE 
END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



I IE Peace of Ryswyck in 1697 bad put an end to the war 
between En^band and France, growing out of the ac- 
cession to tbe Englisb tbrone of William and Mary, 
Louis XIV. baying espoused tbe cause of tbe banisbed 
James 11. Six years and more bostilities bad raged witb more 
tban usual virulence between tbe Frencb of Canada and tbeir 
Indian allies, and tbe suffering border colonies of New York 
and New England. Now tbat peace bad come, Lord Bellomont, 
tbe Governor of New York, sent two commissioners in May, 1098, 
to treat witb tbe Governor-General of Canada, Count de Fron- 
tenac, about tbe exchange of prisoners, and other " public 
aifairs." 

Tbe men chosen for this important and delicate task were 
Colonel Peter Schuyler. Mayor of Albany, and Rev. Godfrey 
Dellius, pastor of tbe Dutch Reformed Church there. In his letter 
to Frontenac, Bellomont characterizes these two gentlemen as 
" tons deux gens de condition et de merite pour vous ifiarquer 
Festime que j'ai pour une personne de votre rang." 

They left Albany on May 8, and arrived at Montreal on tbe 
19th. A party consisting of a Frencb lady, Mme. Pacbot, 
and her friend or relative, M. Asur, both of Quebec, were on the 
point of starting for home. Tbe governor of the city thereupon 
asked them as a pprsonal favor to delay their journey for a day 
or two, so tbat tbe Englisb commissioners might join them. 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 409 

making the journey safer and more agreeable for the latter. 
Although for an important reason even a day's delay might be 
a matter of serious inconvenience and discomfort to the lady, 
they consented to wait. Disposing themselves and their effects 
in four canoes, the traveling companions undertook their voyage 
down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, and arrived there on May 25. 

So agreeable had the companionship proved to both parties 
that Mme. Pachot and M. Asur both strongly urged Colonel 
Schuyler and Mr. Dellius to accept the hospitalities of their 
own homes during their stay in the Canadian capital. This they 
declined, and took lodgings at an inn. But this did not prevent 
their being frequently entertained at the Pachot, the Asur, and 
other houses. 

At the hospitable board of M. and Mme. Pachot the commis- 
sioners from New York were particularly delighted with a 
certain dish of unusual delicacy to which they were unaccus- 
tomed. This was " fresh salmon," which was a " great rarity 
in New York." They could not refrain from expressing their 
" admiration," as the Rev. Mr, Dellius tells us, whereupon Mme. 
Pachot very graciously promised to send them some " pickled 
salmon " after their return to Albany. 

Not to be outdone in courtesy and at the same time to vindicate 
the advantages possessed by their own province in the prandial 
line, Colonel Schuyler and the Domine promised to send the 
Pachots some of those marvelous oysters caught in New York 
Harbor, of which Canadians knew nothing, and also some of 
those luscious fruits that came to New York from Barbadoes and 
other West India islands in such great abundance, " oranges, 
lemons, cocoanuts, and such like." 

Unfortunately, the business upon which the commissioners 
had been sent to Canada compelled them to bring distress to the 
very home where they had been so pleasantly entertained. x\bout 
six years before, when the war had been going on but a few years, 
an English boy had been brought captive to Quebec by a band 
of Indians who had made one of those all too frequent murderous 



410 THE EMl'IBE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

assaults upon " a place in New England called York." Parents 
and nearest relatives of the boy had all been massacred, but he 
was carried captive to Quebec. He was then eight years of age, 
a bright and pretty child. M. Pachot bought him from the 
Indians, to be part servant, part playmate for his own children, 
and now at the age of fourteen, Roland was as much beloved as 
if he were one of their own. But the child had been specially 
mentioned in their instructions, to be recovered with all captives 
taken during the late w^ar. Hence there was nothing to do but 
to submit to the separation, and the boy Roland went back to 
Albany with Schuyler and Dellius. 

A year passed away, and on June 2G, 1699, Mme. Pachot wrote 
a letter to Rev. Mr. Dellius. It did not reach him at Albany, for 
he was not there, but in England, and it was forwarded to him 
there. She began with an apology for not keeping her promise 
about the pickled salmon, excusing her forgetfulness on the sad 
ground of a great grief — the death of her husband. As she 
touchingly says: " Cette parte non seulement me fut oubliee 
mes amis; mais je m' essois oublie moi-meme." By means of some 
French friends in Albany she now fulfilled her promise, but she 
gracefully rallies the Colonel and the Domine on their failure to 
send the promised oysters and fruits. Saying that her memory 
had been aided by the recollection of the journey they had all 
had together, she expresses strong doubts whether they ever 
thought of it, for if they had they, too, would surely have remem- 
bered their promise. " Car je crois M. Dellius trop gallant pour 
n'avoir parfait pour moy ceque je fait aujour-d'hui pour lui 
avec tant d'agr^ment." Then she concludes, signing and dating 
the pretty little note. 

But even two hundred years ago a woman's letter already ex- 
hibited its invariable characteristic. The most important part 
of it was the postscript. It was quite as long as the former 
portion, and was really the " business end " in more senses than 
one. First, it expressed regret at not being acquainted with 
^Irs. Dellius, as otherwise the writer would assure her of her 



THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 411 

respects. Next, it asked Dellius to be of whatever service might 
be required to the bearer of the letter. Thirdly, it begged him to 
send her news of Roland, hoping that he might still be sent 
back to her, since he had neither parents nor relatives, adding 
very sweetly: " Je I'aime tonsjours." And lastly comes a most 
businessdike conclusion: If any merchants in Albany would like 
to establish connections with her, they were referred to an agent 
or factor who attended to her affairs, when she was not on hand 
to see to them herself; so that evidently she was a resolute little 
woman, as well as an afPectionate wife and tender mother, and 
courteous correspondent. The style of her letter indicates culture, 
the apparent slips in spelling being accounted for by the older 
methods prevalent and correct two hundred years ago. Indeed, 
it is somewhat surprising to find so many cases of the imperfect 
tense terminating in " ais " instead of " ois," as was then the 
mode, unless this be due to the unconscious or conscious modern- 
izing of the transcriber of the record. 

And still by this letter there hangs a further tale. Sad changes 
had come to Dellius als. within the year since the pleasant 
Canadian visit. As was said, the letter was forwarded to him in 
England. He was there to defend his name and to save his 
property. Bellomont, who had spoken so highly of him to Count 
Frontenac, had become a bitter enemy. Grants of land obtained 
from Governor Fletcher, and for which he had paid the ordinary 
purchase price to the Indian owners, had been vacated on the 
charge of fraud. And to justify this rather severe treatment, 
his private character was further assailed in various ways. Mme. 
Pachot's letter was the innocent cause of a very base slander. 
Failing to reach Dellius at Albany, it fell into the hands of Itev. 
Mr. Nucella, the pastor of the Dutch Church at Kingston, N. Y. 
He opened and read it, and showed it to his wife, who sent it 
to her mother, residing in London, to be by her delivered to :\rr. 
Dellius. It would seem from this as if the Kingston minister and 
his wife meant to do the fair and square thing by Domine Del- 
lius. But yet it must be said that they only knew the contents 



412 THE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 

of the letter. How, then, did Bellomont come to nicake out of it 
the monstrous tale that it gave proof that Mr. Dellius had had 
improper relations with a French Canadian woman? Nucella 
would not show Bellomont the letter; but if such a huge and 
baseless slander was manufactured out of it by the governor, 
shall we dare to conclude that the hint of it was conveyed to 
him by what the Kingston pastor told him, or must we accept 
the other disagreeable horn of the dilemma, that Bellomont de- 
liberately perverted and falsified the information he obtained 
about it? Surely nothing could be more delightful than the 
picture of the amenities of colonial life, exhibited by the letter 
and the circumstances out of which it grew. And at the same 
time it stands forth clear as the day that the letter could not 
be interpreted in the remotest degree as intimating any but the 
most innocent and virtuous conditions. 

Still another bit of interest. This letter occurs in a " Defense " 
by Dellius addressed to the Classis of Amsterdam, the judicatory 
of the Church of Holland, under which stood the church at 
Albany, as did all those in the former New Netherland provinces 
(i.e.. New York and New Jersey). Of this " Defense " four pages 
were discovered by John Romeyn Brodhead, when on his quest 
after " Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State 
of New York,-' in Holland, in 1841 to 1843. The rest could not 
be found, or at least were not transcribed by him. The latter 
and longer portion (eight pages of closely written manuscript) 
was found by the Rev. Dr. Corwin, historiographer of the Re- 
formed Dutch Church in America, among the archives of the 
Classis of Amsterdam, in the summer of 1897. It is from the 
transcription of this " lost " portion that the present writer has 
been enabled to cull this extremely interesting picture of life in 
the colonial days two hundred years ago. If the picture has 
rather a somber or sinister setting, it only enhances the intimate 
view of individual intercourse, of which we get so little amid the 
rumble of battle or the clamor of quarreling kings and cabinets, 
which makes up so much of what men call " history." 



13 fl^! 



